http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/no-indian-study-links-cigarettes-with-cancer-says-bjp-chief-of-parliamentary-committee-750860
India will miss the deadline for a major initiative to dissuade smoking. Tobacco companies had been told late last year that starting April 1, they would have to stamp health warnings across 85 per cent of the surface of cigarette packets from next year.
However, a parliamentary committee has recommended more discussion on this, allowing tobacco firms a breather.
The head of that panel, BJP law-maker Dilip Kumar Gandhi, told NDTV today that India has little independent evidence to link cigarettes and cancer. "Does this (smoking) cause cancer or does not? What are the impacts? We have never done our own survey," he said.
It will be upto the government to decide whether to accept the parliamentary panel's recommendations, but activists say the missed deadline does not bode well.
"This is just a front for the tobacco industry, it's going to affect the bottom line of companies and that's the smoke screen they have put up," said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, Executive Director of the Voluntary Health Association of India.
"In a country like ours, where a large section of the population cannot read or write and more users are coming on board, pictorial warnings are the need of the hour," she stressed.
In November, health campaigners had welcomed India's plans to raise the age for tobacco purchases to 25 and ban unpackaged cigarette sales, calling them a major step towards stopping nearly one million tobacco-related deaths a year.
The plans were announced by Health Minister JP Nadda in Parliament but have not progressed.
Around 900,000 people die of tobacco-related illnesses in India each year, the second-highest number after China, and experts predict that could rise to 1.5 million by the end of the decade.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-BJP-MP-bats-for-tobacco-claims-it-has-medicinal-value/articleshow/46801116.cms
Another BJP MP bats for tobacco, claims it has 'medicinal value'
GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: Two days after two BJP MPs Shyam Charan Gupta and Dilip Gandhi kicked up a row saying there was no link between cancer and tobacco consumption, they were joined in by another party MP, Ram Prasad Sarmah from Tezpur, who said tobacco had 'medicinal' values.
Like Gupta, a beedi baron, and Gandhi, Sarmah, too, is a member of the parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation that is looking into the rules related to tobacco sales. Gandhi is the chairman of the committee. The government deferred its April 1 deadline to increase pictorial warnings on packets containing tobacco items from the existing 40 to 85 per cent following recommendations from this committee.
Sarmah said the committee does not have any medical, chemical or material proof that tobacco consumption causes cancer. "Experts from different scientific fields should give us proof that in Indian environment, tobacco causes cancer. We cannot take any decision based on hearsay. I know there are also properties having herbal and medicinal values," Sarmah told TOI on phone.
READ ALSO: BJP MP's comments on tobacco, cigarettes and cancer kick up storm
No Indian study says tobacco causes cancer: Parliamentary panel
However, the government has distanced itself from the pro-tobacco lobby's remarks. Health Minister J P Nadda asserted that the government was "consistent" on its stand that tobacco consumption has to be reduced and said: "He (Sarmah) is an MP and member of the committee. I would not like to comment on him. The party, the health ministry and I do not subscribe to his view."
But MPs like Sarmah are against the long-pending demand from anti-tobacco activists to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products. The BJP MP from Tezpur said he knew an 86-year-old person who died of old age ailments, and not cancer, despite smoking 60 cigarettes a day.
"Today, I came across a patient from Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district who has been diagnosed with cancer. I know him very well. He did not smoke, chew or consume tobacco in any form in his life," added Sarmah.
The Aam Aadmi Party has waded into the controversy, saying the MPs' remarks exposed the BJP's "actual agenda and character."
Asking the BJP to clarify whether it stood with the tobacco lobby or cared for people's health, the AAP said in a statement: "All these remarks are a clear case of conflict of interest. The fact that Gupta is into the tobacco industry and also a member of Parliamentary Committee of Subordinate Legislation looking into the rules regarding tobacco sale in the country is a mockery of the Parliamentary standards of legislation and policy making."
The AAP demanded that the Speaker should recall the committee's report and take action against those who continued to be part of the committee without due declaration.
No Indian Study Links Cigarettes With Cancer, Says BJP Chief of Parliamentary Committee
However, a parliamentary committee has recommended more discussion on this, allowing tobacco firms a breather.
The head of that panel, BJP law-maker Dilip Kumar Gandhi, told NDTV today that India has little independent evidence to link cigarettes and cancer. "Does this (smoking) cause cancer or does not? What are the impacts? We have never done our own survey," he said.
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"This is just a front for the tobacco industry, it's going to affect the bottom line of companies and that's the smoke screen they have put up," said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, Executive Director of the Voluntary Health Association of India.
"In a country like ours, where a large section of the population cannot read or write and more users are coming on board, pictorial warnings are the need of the hour," she stressed.
In November, health campaigners had welcomed India's plans to raise the age for tobacco purchases to 25 and ban unpackaged cigarette sales, calling them a major step towards stopping nearly one million tobacco-related deaths a year.
The plans were announced by Health Minister JP Nadda in Parliament but have not progressed.
Around 900,000 people die of tobacco-related illnesses in India each year, the second-highest number after China, and experts predict that could rise to 1.5 million by the end of the decade.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-BJP-MP-bats-for-tobacco-claims-it-has-medicinal-value/articleshow/46801116.cms
Another BJP MP bats for tobacco, claims it has 'medicinal value'
GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: Two days after two BJP MPs Shyam Charan Gupta and Dilip Gandhi kicked up a row saying there was no link between cancer and tobacco consumption, they were joined in by another party MP, Ram Prasad Sarmah from Tezpur, who said tobacco had 'medicinal' values.
Like Gupta, a beedi baron, and Gandhi, Sarmah, too, is a member of the parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation that is looking into the rules related to tobacco sales. Gandhi is the chairman of the committee. The government deferred its April 1 deadline to increase pictorial warnings on packets containing tobacco items from the existing 40 to 85 per cent following recommendations from this committee.
Sarmah said the committee does not have any medical, chemical or material proof that tobacco consumption causes cancer. "Experts from different scientific fields should give us proof that in Indian environment, tobacco causes cancer. We cannot take any decision based on hearsay. I know there are also properties having herbal and medicinal values," Sarmah told TOI on phone.
READ ALSO: BJP MP's comments on tobacco, cigarettes and cancer kick up storm
No Indian study says tobacco causes cancer: Parliamentary panel
However, the government has distanced itself from the pro-tobacco lobby's remarks. Health Minister J P Nadda asserted that the government was "consistent" on its stand that tobacco consumption has to be reduced and said: "He (Sarmah) is an MP and member of the committee. I would not like to comment on him. The party, the health ministry and I do not subscribe to his view."
But MPs like Sarmah are against the long-pending demand from anti-tobacco activists to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products. The BJP MP from Tezpur said he knew an 86-year-old person who died of old age ailments, and not cancer, despite smoking 60 cigarettes a day.
"Today, I came across a patient from Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district who has been diagnosed with cancer. I know him very well. He did not smoke, chew or consume tobacco in any form in his life," added Sarmah.
The Aam Aadmi Party has waded into the controversy, saying the MPs' remarks exposed the BJP's "actual agenda and character."
Asking the BJP to clarify whether it stood with the tobacco lobby or cared for people's health, the AAP said in a statement: "All these remarks are a clear case of conflict of interest. The fact that Gupta is into the tobacco industry and also a member of Parliamentary Committee of Subordinate Legislation looking into the rules regarding tobacco sale in the country is a mockery of the Parliamentary standards of legislation and policy making."
The AAP demanded that the Speaker should recall the committee's report and take action against those who continued to be part of the committee without due declaration.
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