Govt wants a corpse to stub smoking

AHMEDABAD: Every cigarette packet displays a dire health warning. The Marlboro Man’s death, caused by cancer, is a trivia that stains many smokers’ pleasure. The media lets out a cautionary puff of anti-smoking message each time a study discovers new perils of tobacco. Yet, smokers light up every day, belying the notion that the educated know what’s good for them.

That is why the fuss inflamed by a government notification on warnings on bidis seems puzzling. The Centre has said that from February 2007, bidi packets will have to carry the most graphic statutory caveat ever: a picture of a corpse.

Bidi czars worry about the effects of the message on their target groups. “The consumers being mostly illiterate, the danger sign will affect demand, forcing most small bidi units to close,” said Kanu Patel, managing director of Jeevraj Bidi.

But equally graphic warnings have been cheerfully stubbed out by cigarette smokers. That means those who enjoy tobacco do so even when the danger is spelt out in the most accessible manner. And all that the new ruling does is take what bidi connoisseurs always knew and morph it into a dramatic illustration. So why is the bidi industry so shaken? It is perhaps the size stipulations that are worrying the industry.

“There will hardly be any space left to print the name of our brand and company symbol,” said Rajnikant Patel, president of the All-India Bidi Industry Federation.

The government expects the skull-and-crossbones sign to occupy an area of 1.2cm in length and 1cm in width. The recommended size for the health warning (‘Smoking kills’) is 4cm. The picture of the corpse and the health message (‘Tobacco kills 2,500 Indians everyday’) has been set at 2.4cm in length and 2cm in width.

“Around 70 per cent of the space on the packet will contain the government’s messages,” Rajnikant Patel said.