In time, all tobacco related ads were withdrawn from the Nepali broadcast media, partly because the little message to deter potential smokers never got through. Instead the number of smokers in Nepal steadily rose. Currently, one Nepali dies from the consumption of tobacco-related products every 30 minutes (which amounts to over 7,500 annually). Forty-nine percent of men and 29 percent of all women smoke. It was to curb this worrying trend that the government in May imposed a total ban on “tobacco advertisements, promotion and sponsorship in any form.”
A complete ban on smoking in public places and “graphic warnings covering 75 percent of each side of cigarette packages and the packages of other tobacco products” were the other significant provisions of the tobacco control legislation passed by the parliament back in May. The absence of a clear definition of a ‘public place’ has been a big hurdle for effective implementation of the legislation.
The provision of graphic warnings on packaging has been brazenly flouted. This is the reason the Supreme Court on November 9 had to issue an interim order for its immediate implementation. There have been misgivings from some quarters, and even outright skepticism, on the effectiveness of graphic warnings. Echoing the concerns of the tobacco lobby in Nepal, a recent Los Angeles Times editorial goes: “Though we like the idea of warnings… we´ve been concerned… about forcing one particular industry to advertise against its own product.” It also claimed that “warnings in the form of images aren´t really all that different from written warnings.”
But these assumptions rest on false premises. No industry that impairs the lives of common people can hope to operate in a business-friendly atmosphere created for industries that meet people’s genuine needs. And clear graphic images—of cancerous mouths or burnt-out lungs—have helped reduce smoking rates wherever they have been tried. According to the pioneering pilot study of the International Tobacco Control Evaluation Project, the percentages of Thais and Mauritians wishing to quit smoking went up significantly when they saw the graphic images in comparison to the people of Malaysia, where the smoking rate held steady despite the written warnings on cigarette packages.
Thus, in addition to raising taxes on tobacco products every year, an effective strategy to make people quit by making cigarettes expensive, the provision of graphic images should be strictly implemented. This small step could potentially save thousands of lives.
Related story
Blood Cancer Society Nepal conducts charity event for blood can...
