India - main opposition party leader calls for a complete ban on tobacco..

Tobacco Free..

March 16, 2011 - Crisis in India: Smoking Expected to Kill 1 Million People Annually by 2010 by Larry West, About.com Guide

India - 80% of teenagers in metropolitan cities are addicted to smoking cigarettes..

A leader of India's main opposition party called for a complete ban on tobacco on Tuesday, March 15th in a potentially unpopular policy announcement she said was justified on public health grounds.

Why not try one state at a time to go tobacco free - start with GOA (India State of Goa - stop sale of loose cigarettes and raise tobacco taxes.. - tobaccowatch.org)

Sushma Swaraj, parliamentary leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), raised the issue in the lower house on Tuesday, saying as many as 800,000 people died of cancer caused by tobacco in India every year.

"I stand for (a) complete ban on all tobacco products," Swaraj, a former health minister, later wrote on the micro-blogging website Twitter. Failing an immediate ban, she said she favoured better pictorial warnings about the effects of tobacco on packets of cigarettes. (India - cigarette/bidis companies resume tobacco production..) In 2009, India began printing graphic health warnings on cigarette packets and other tobacco products, including photos of diseased lungs and gums, as part of efforts to cut smoking.

The country is the world's second-largest producer and consumer of tobacco behind China, according to the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation. About a fifth of Indians, or 241 million people, use tobacco in some form.

In October 2008, India banned smoking in public places and the sale of tobacco products near educational institutes and hospitals -- but the regulations are flouted in many places. (India - despite govt ban, sale and advertising of tobacco products is rampant around educational institutions..)

Reference: India's opposition leader calls for tobacco ban by Deshakalyan Chowdhury, Agence France Presse (AFP News), 3/15/2011.

India - some related news briefs:
^*Mumbai, India - BEST committee to monitor to prevent tobacco advertisement;
^*India State of Goa - stop sale of loose cigarettes and raise tobacco taxes..;
^*Chandigarh, India - a leader in tobacco control..;
^*India - Cancer docs take tobacco battle inside parliament..;
^*http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-to-introduce-anti-tobacco.html;
^*India - 80% of teenagers in metropolitan cities are addicted to smoking cigarettes..;
^*India - despite govt ban, sale and advertising of tobacco products is rampant around educational institutions..;
^*India - foreign cigarette companies could soon find it harder to sell their products..;
^*Maharashtra, India - collecting fines from anti-tobacco drive..;
^*India - health ministry formulating policy that is smokeless tobacco specific..;
^*India - celebs shy away from endorsing tobacco and liquor..;
^*Mumbai, India - students campaign to spread word on the dangers of tobacco products..;
^*India - cigarette/bidis companies resume tobacco production..;
^*India - will delay for a year the use of scarier pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packs..;
^*India - cigarettes and bidis manufacturers halt production seek clarification on pictorial health warnings..;
^*India - Tobacco Board warns farmers against planting unauthorized crop..;
^*India - revised pictorial warnings on tobacco products will be implemented from December 1, 2010..;
^*India - captions with pictorial warnings should use local languages..:
^*India - pictorial warning will appear on every tobacco pack sold from June 1, 2010..;
^*India - government set to ban foreign direct investment in tobacco..;
^*India - despite tobacco control measure in place - tobacco sales increase..;
^*India - still confusion pictorial warnings on cigarette packs..;
^*Mumbai, India - NGO activists want closure of hookah bars..;
^*India - gutkha and bidi companies NOT pictorial warnings..;
^*India - cigarette packs with pictorial warnings are here..; ^*India - NO graphic pictorial warnings yet..;
^*India - Still no pictorial warnings on cigarette packs..;
^*India - pictorial warning on cigarettes and tobacco products effective May 31, 2009..;
^*India - pictorial warning on cigarettes and tobacco products will be implemented from May 31 - no doubts about it..;
^*India - will pictorial or graphic health warnings be implemented from May 30, 2009..;
^*India - placing pictorial warnings on tobacco products delayed again...

World anti tobacco day May 31, 2010 - Photos Women Smoking in India..