Package Warnings Update
Mandatory Pictorial Warning On All Tobacco Products
July 19, 2006
Jacob Cherian – All Headline News Staff Writer
Jacob Cherian – All Headline News Staff Writer
New Delhi, India (AHN) – The federal government of India has instated rules imposing mandatory pictorial health warning signs on all packaging containing tobacco products. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packing and Labeling) Rules 2006 will come into effect starting February 1, 2007. It will allow traders and manufacturers time to implement the necessary modifications.
Each packaged tobacco product is to contain the health warning as specified in the regulatory plan.
It includes a sign of skull and bones, along with a warning (‘tobacco kills/smoking kills), and a pictorial representation of the adverse effects of tobacco use and a health message.
Section 20 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (Prohibition of Advertising and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 2003) says a strict penalty will be issued for non-compliance.
A manufacturer who fails to carry the warnings as it is described in the law will be imprisoned for a term on the first conviction. The term may extend to two years, or be punishable with a fine, which could be up to Rs.5000 ($107) or carry both penalties.
For additional convictions, the punishment shall be imprisonment up to five years and a fine up to Rs.10,000 ($215).
A person involved in selling or distributing the aforementioned products without the specified warning is liable to be imprisoned up to a year, or with a fine of up to Rs.1000 ($21), or both.
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