[Intl-tobacco] Indian smokers now taking tobacco firms to court

[Robert Weissman]

Indian smokers now taking tobacco firms to court

by Dhiman Chattopadhyay
Source: The Times of India, Monday, 10/23/00

CALCUTTA: More and more smokers in India are taking tobacco companies to
court
for "not warning them early enough and strongly enough" about the
ill-effects
of smoking and chewing tobacco.

Their logic is simple: Most school or college students, they argue, buy
loose
cigarettes and not a whole packet when starting off. Therefore, carrying
a
statutory warning on each packet is clearly not enough, they argue.
Moreover,
with cigarette advertisements banned on television, potential smokers
are
getting access to the killer puff without being told, each time they
open the
TV set, that consuming tobacco can kill.

Thirty-three-year-old Ashish Banerjee for instance, (not his real name)
was
addicted to cigarettes. He smoked more than three packets a day and was
known
among friends as a 'chain smoker.'

Today, cancer has eaten away the insides of his mouth. Part of his
tongue and
the inside of his cheek has been sliced off to prevent the disease from
spreading.

The sales officer in a Calcutta-based firm admits he made a 'grave error
in
judgment' as a college students, when he took up smoking to impress his
friends. And he is determined to ensure that others do not follow in his

footsteps. He has filed a petition in a local court, seeking a complete
ban on
the sale of cigarettes, pan masala and tobacco inside college premises
and
within 100 metres of schools.

"I was inspired by a man in Ahmedabad who took a well-known tobacco
company to
court after being diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. He can barely
speak, but
has been raising his voice against the sale of tobacco and pan masala in
the
market," he said.

"The government should compensate those suffering from cancer caused by
tobacco. The statutory warning on tobacco pouches does not serve any
purpose,"
he said, adding that the warning should clearly state that tobacco
causes
cancer instead of "beating around the bush".

But unlike in Gujarat where the court has admitted Vishrolia's petition
and
issued notices to the health, revenue and finance departments of the
state
government,

The West Bengal government seems the least bothered. Nowhere in the
Writers'
Buildings - the centre of state power - is smoking banned. From
corridors to
air-conditioned rooms, smokers abound every corridor. "It is difficult
to
impose a law banning smoking when so many ministers themselves are chain

smokers", a state government employee working in the Writers' Buildings
said on
Sunday.

According to health minister Partha De, government offices should ban
smoking
within the complex to set an example. "We have already prohibited the
sale of
cigarettes in public places like railway stations, public vehicles,
hospitals
and schools. We also plan to impose a ban on selling tobacco in cultural

complexes," he said.

A survey conducted by an international tobacco control network says 92
per cent
of children in India consume tobacco. An estimated 600,000 people die
every
year in India because of cancer-related diseases, it adds. "Indians are
learning the hard way that whoever told them they needed a cigarette in
their
hand to feel like a man, was lying," the survey report noted.