More pictorial warning on tobacco packs soon

“As much as 80 per cent mouth cancer is caused by chewing tobacco,” said Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and pointed out that the risk was three times greater than when tobacco is smoked.

Tobacco kills between 700,000 to one million Indians every year and a large number of those tobacco victims use smokeless tobacco.

With the government deciding to crack the whip on smokeless tobacco products, the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity had identified a set of harsh pictorial warnings for chewing tobacco, out of which the health ministry would pick up a few, he said, adding that the official notification would come soon.