Jump to full article: The Times of India, 2009-05-30
Intro: Smokers may think twice before lighting up from Sunday. Starting May 31, the World No Tobacco Day, all tobacco products will carry graphic pictorial warnings like the skull and cross bones or a cancer-disfigured face or diseased lungs to highlight the hazards of tobacco intake.
The implementation of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Packing and Labelling) Rules 2008 follows a long battle between NGOs and tobacco industries. The central government had deferred the new law for six months in the wake of pressure from influential tobacco companies.
The move finally came on a plea in the Supreme Court earlier in May by NGO Health for Millions, which alleged that powerful tobacco lobbies were to blame for coming in the way of the law over the last three years.
The pictorial warning would occupy 40 percent of the space on the front of all packets of tobacco products.
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