The Hindu : National : Pictorial warning from Dec. 1

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Wednesday, Oct 10, 2007
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National

Pictorial warning from Dec. 1

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Pictorial health warnings on cigarettes and other tobacco products will become mandatory from December 1, the display of skull and cross bones being optional. This follows an amendment to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade, Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003, passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The government has since notified the revised Packaging and Labelling Rules, 2007, whereby the pictorial depiction of skull and cross bones has been made optional and the pictorial representation of the dead body removed, an official release said here on Tuesday.

On packs of cigarettes, gutkha and bidis manufactured after December 1, 2007 there should be the depiction of the specified pictorial warnings. The Ministry has come out with a set of four pictures in specified sizes which will have to be printed on every pack.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss advocated depiction of the skull and cross bones and a dead body, but this suggestion came in for criticism from manufacturers and a religious minority group. Thereafter, a Group of Ministers, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee turned down the suggestion.

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