The new warnings will come into effect from September 1, 2018
Now tobacco consumers will find a quit line number on the tobacco pack itself – to help users quit the addiction. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its notification dated April 3, 2018 has announced that tobacco packs will have new pack warnings covering 85 per cent of pack area, with pictorial images, text messages and the quit line number. The new warnings will come into effect from September 1, 2018. The text messages will be ‘Tobacco causes cancer’ and ‘Tobacco causes painful death’. A Quit line no. 1800-11-2356 will also be printed on the pack.
Government has introduced a Quit Line looking at the results of Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) report of 2017 in which indicated that 62 per cent of cigarette smokers, 54 per cent of bidi smokers and 46 per cent of smokeless tobacco users thought of quitting because of pictorial warning label on tobacco products.
The new warnings were field tested/ pre-tested for their efficacy with dummy packs amongst the target groups of users (both smoking and smokeless) and non-users and the participants in the focus group during the survey stated that printing of the quit line number (1800112356) on the packs was a novel idea which will motivate smokers to seek help for quitting tobacco. They were of the view that many smokers/ consumers of smokeless tobacco want to quit, but are not aware about where and how to seek help. For such people, the quit line number would be very useful. Some participants said that professional counselors are very expensive and those who cannot afford their fee, can now make use of the service by calling up the quit line number. Another aspect pointed out by the participants was that seeking help from the quit line number offers the caller a sense of anonymity, which many of the smokers would want. Participants also felt that if a smoker would call the quit line number and get counseling on how to quit tobacco, she/ he would share positive feedback with peers/ friends/ colleagues who can then also call the quit line number for quitting tobacco.