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Orissa Government bans smoking in schools, colleges 

Bhubaneswar: In a significant development Orissa government has decided to impose ban on smoking on campuses of schools and colleges. This was said by health minister Prasanna Acharya. Health minister Acharya says, apart from the law, a public awareness is also necessary to implement such thing. We are going to launch a campaign in this regard soon. According to Acharya, the law to ban smoking in educational institutions would be put into effect from this month and the enforcement squad would ensure its proper implementation.

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Now ticket examiners, railway force can act against smokers 

Smokers beware! Ticket examiners and Railway Protection Force (RPF) assistant sub-inspectors have been authorised to take action against those found smoking in trains and on railway platforms.

The health ministry has issued a notification in this regard.

As per the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules 2008, the law imposes strict ban on smoking in public places. Those found smoking in public places can be charged up to Rs.200.

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Image warnings on cigarette packs go up in smoke 

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs and other tobacco products are largely ineffective and don’t convey ill effects of tobacco consumption, a study has found.

Researchers from the non-governmental organisation, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, interviewed 615 people, including 136 smokers, across the city in September.

It was found that many of them made bizarre interpretations of the pictures the government had made mandatory in May this year to discourage tobacco consumption.

Many took the scorpion’s image represented a zodiac sign and a picture of diseased lungs was mistaken to be that of burnt leaves. . . .

The findings have been submitted to the Health Ministry with a request to impose stronger pictorial warnings.

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Delhi University campaign now targets beedi smokers 

The Delhi University Smoke-Free Initiative, after being extended to all DU colleges, has now turned its focus to beedis, as its usage among the youth is increasing.

The primary target of the campaign against beedis, however, would be the non-teaching staff. Beedis were the main agenda in a meeting of nodal officers of the project on October 25.

Every college of the university has a member of the faculty assigned as the nodal officer.

"We'll be targeting karamcharis (workers), who form a significant chunk of the university population. A large number of karamcharis smoke beedis. It has also been noted that rickshaw-pullers, who form the backbone of the DU transport system smoke beedis," said G R Khatri, president, World Lung Foundation (South Asia).

"Nodal officers have been asked to educate smokers that beedis are no less harmful than cigarettes," said Khatri.

"Cutting the source rather than a smoking ban is the aim of the project; and we have been largely successful in doing so. We'll discourage non-teaching staff from smoking on campus," said St Stephen's nodal officer Pankaj Misra.

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• Pictoral warnings on cigarette packs watered down 

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets recently introduced by the government are about to be phased out, reports say. It is its a clear attempt to safe guard the interest of the people involved in the tobacco industry and to keep the governmen'ts crucial vote bank intact.

Initially, there were some gruesome pictures that depicted the worse possible effects of tobacco on the human body. These pictures were first notified by the Health Ministry in July 2006 as pictorial warnings for cigarette and gutka packets. But these pictures were shot down by the Group of Ministers (GoM) as 'objectionable'.

Former Union Labour Minister, Oscar Fernandes said, "If we're talking about making the pictures harsher, we may as well shut down the industry. There are several districts in West Bengal where poor bidi workers earn their livelihood from this."

In a meeting of the GoM chaired by Pranab Mukherjee in July 2007, it was decided that the picture of the dead body be replaced with a 'suitable' one.

The minutes of the meeting available with CNN-IBN show that in the GoM, Pranab Mukharjee said, "A number of representations have been received from the bidi industry that employs a large number of workers from the weaker sections of society. The basic issues raised by the bidi industry relate to the size, colour and obnoxious nature of the pictorial warnings. Keeping this is view, the pictorial warnings may be modified."

The GOM also asked the Health Ministry to consult the Ministry of Law and remove the 'skull and cross bone' as a warning sign.

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Ban on smoking up in smoke in Meghalaya: VHAM  

Despite the ban on smoking in public places enforced a year ago it is yet to be implemented properly in the state, a Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM) has claimed.

According to a survey conducted by VHAM, except for public places like restaurants and hotels no punitive measures have been taken to deal with the violators as per provisions of the Act, VHAM said at a Convergence of legislators and Civil Societies on Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA) here yesterday.

The findings also revealed that little was done by the education department to strictly enforce the Act banning the sale of tobacco products in and around schools and other educational institutions, sources said.

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Bars not stubbing out cigarettes: Survey  

The hype surrounding ban on smoking at public places seems to have vanished into thin air. A recent survey shows that the ban has not been effectively implemented since it came into effect in October last year. The nationwide survey conducted by Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) with 11 partner organisations found that over 60% of the bars and restaurants flouted anti-smoking rules.

At least 211 public places were surveyed of which 127 flouted the law. "Our teams spent close to an hour at these bars and restaurants and measured the air quality using a small device. It highlights the fact that there are places where smoking in closed space is allowed. It is the non-smokers who are at a risk. There is an urgent need to take stringent action against clubs, bars, restaurants etc which flout the law,'' said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, VHAI.

What's worrisome is the fact that the level of fine particles at these places was 32 times higher than the permissible limit. "

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• Over 60 percent Indian restaurants flout no-smoking law: study 

Over 60 percent of bars-cum-restaurants across the country have been found to be openly flouting the ban on smoking in public places, a year after the law was implemented, says a study.

The Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) study conducted by an NGO, Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), along with 11 partner organisations revealed that out of the 211 restaurants surveyed across 16 cities, 127 flouted the no-smoking ban.

Binoy Matthew of VHAI said: "We found that fine particle air pollution is 32 times higher than the WHO recommended guidelines for air quality in non-compliant bars-cum-restaurants."

"Consequently, employees and customers in those places are at increased risk of adverse health effects, especially heart attacks, lung cancer and serious respiratory illnesses," he added.

In Delhi, of the 12 restaurants and bars visited, five were found to be flouting the law by allowing smoking without following the Designated Smoking Room (DSR) norms.

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Majority of Indians favour ban on smoking 

A year after the ban on smoking in public places came in force, a study has found that an overwhelming majority of Indians favour the regulations prohibiting smoking at workplaces and public arenas. More than nine out of 10 Indians surveyed in four cities favour the regulations prohibiting smoking in public places.

Support for regulations to ensure the ban is also strong in each city, with a large majority of those interviewed in Delhi [ Images ] (90 per cent), Mumbai [ Images ] (98 per cent), Chennai (92 per cent) and Kolkata [ Images ] (93 per cent) favouring it. Citizens in the four major metros also understand that second hand smoke is a serious risk to people's health. Ninety-two per cent believe exposure to second hand smoke is a serious health hazard for the non-smoker.

In addition, 91 per cent majority indicate that it bothers them a lot when they are exposed to second hand smoke, according to the study conducted by NGO, the Voluntary Health Association of India.

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Fresh puff on JU smoke ban 

Jadavpur University is making another attempt to enforce the three-year-old smoking ban on campus.

On Monday morning, students, teachers and staff members were greeted by "No Smoking" signs in every landing and corridor of the more than 30 academic and administrative buildings on the campus.

"We noticed the signs today. This makes the ban more official I think," said an undergraduate student of the arts department.

In October 2006, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had sent a circular to all affiliated institutions instructing them to implement the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

The act, which came into effect on May 1, 2004, prohibits sale of tobacco products within 100 yards (91.44m) of educational institutions.

"We decided at a recent executive council meeting that we would take proactive steps to intensify the ban on the campus," said Siddhartha Dutta, the pro-vice chancellor of the university.

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Hyderabad woman to head American college of Chest Physicians 

The American College of Chest Physicians has elected Dr Kalpalatha K Guntupalli, the only woman president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, as its first Asian American woman president.

Hyderabad-born Guntupalli is currently tenured full professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, considered one of the top 10 medical schools in the US, and also chief of pulmonary/critical care and sleep division at BCM.

She will be inaugurated as the new president of the 75-year-old ACCP Nov 1 in San Diego.

With 2010 declared 'Year of Lung' by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, Guntupalli hopes the AACP will take on a leadership role in "contributing to celebrate lung health around the globe". . . .

Her particular passion is in the field of tobacco control programmes, and over the years she has developed anti-tobacco material in seven languages besides anti-tobacco cartoons for children, inspiring more than 2,00,000 children in India to spread the message about the acute dangers of smoking and tobacco chewing.

An educational CD titled 'Evils of Tobacco', developed specifically for South Asia and containing a 12-minute video documentary and 186-video augmented power-point slides for medical professionals, has been translated into Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu and Gujarati and is in use in dental schools, elementary and high schools all over India and the US.

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ITC: It's an all-round performance 

The highlights of ITC's sterling set of numbers for the September 2009 quarter are the strong performance of the cigarettes and agri businesses and smaller losses from the non-cigarette FMCG segment.

Not surprisingly, the stock closed 5 per cent higher at Rs 260 on Friday, with operating profit margins rising by 620 basis points year-on-year, to just under 36 per cent, on revenues of Rs 4,293 crore, up 14 per cent year-on-year.

The strong profitability pushed up the operating profit by nearly 38 per cent to Rs 1,537 crore. The cigarettes business has been remarkably resilient despite the ban on smoking in public places, the hike in value-added taxes in several states and the modest price hikes taken by the company.

In fact, the ITC stock was re-rated a few months back since cigarette volumes were seen to be growing at a good clip of 4-5 per cent and industry watchers believed the momentum would sustain. Moreover, the management has indicated that non-cigarette FMCG losses would be brought down to Rs 400 crore this year; while ITC posted a loss of around Rs 100 crore in each of six consecutive quarters, the loss in the September 2009 quarter was Rs 85 crore.

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Cigarette biz, belt-tightening boost show 

Beating market expectations for the second consecutive quarter, ITC has logged a strong performance, thanks to its diversified business portfolio. The tobacco-to-FMCG major has registered a double-digit increase in net profit and revenues as well as a healthy expansion in profit margins.

Though the company is witnessing a subdued performance in its hotel business and its non-cigarette FMCG continues to bleed, the good show put up by its other businesses has more than compensated for any adverse impact on profits.

ITC has made significant savings on advertising & promotional costs, as is evident from the y-o-y drop in company’s other expenditure. It also made small savings on raw material costs. All this helped the operating profit margin to expand by more than 500 bps to 36.5%, while the net profit margin rose by nearly 250 bps to 23% during the September 2009 quarter.

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Extra tobacco output for export to be fined 

The government will impose a hefty penalty of 15% of sale proceeds if farmers produce more export quality tobacco than the quota allotted to them by the Tobacco Board for the current year.

The penalty was 5% in 2008-09 season. But farmers exceeded the quota by about 18%, tempted by almost 100% increase in prices of the flue-cured variety (FCV) of tobacco, grown largely in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

"The penalty has been increased to discourage farmers from cultivating surplus FCV tobacco," Tobacco Board chairman J Suresh Babu said.

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ITC Net Profit Up 26% 

ITC Ltd., India's largest cigarette maker by sales, Friday posted a 26% rise in second quarter net profit, helped by an overall strong performance in all its business operations, except hotels.

Net profit for the July-September period rose to 10.10 billion rupees ($217.5 million) from 8.03 billion rupees a year earlier.

Net sales increased 14% to 42.93 billion rupees from 37.63 billion rupees, helped by higher sales at its tobacco and non-tobacco consumer goods segments, agribusiness and paperboards business, the company said.

The results beat analysts' expectations, with a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 10 analysts expecting, on average, net profit of 9.12 billion rupees on revenue of 41.49 billion rupees.

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