Voters in Switzerland have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum.

PANJIM: Staff of health department will be trained to implement the Control of Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), whose provisions ban smoking in public places, as part of measures to effectively implement the Act in Goa.

The move suggested during a brainstorming session of a workshop on ‘Tobacco Control and the role of enforcement agencies’ organised by the Voluntary Health Association of Goa, VHAG recently also suggests making police more proactive in enforcing the no smoking law in Goa.
The health officers along with the state nodal officer and the member secretary (of tobacco control) suggested that they train their own staff on how to implement the Act.

Ahmedabad: A comprehensive ban on production and sale of gutka will come into effect in Gujarat on Tuesday, as per the notification issued by the state government. Chief minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day address, had announced complete ban on gutka from September 11.

However, there is a catch in the notification issued: sale of gutka will be prohibited, but one would be free to sell separately tobacco, beetle nut and lime separately.

The Union government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it would soon come out with a gazette notification allowing the film industry to incorporate smoking scenes with statutory warnings alongside.

The new rules advise filmmakers to give a 20-second antismoking message as approved by the Health Ministry — with a voice-over of one of the actors seen smoking — to be displayed at the beginning and after intermission. Additionally, a static message would have to be displayed for the duration of the smoking scene.

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to the Union Ministries of Information & Broadcasting and Health & Family Welfare and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on a petition filed by the producer of an upcoming Hindi film, Heroine, challenging a direction to display a static anti-smoking message in the background wherever smoking scenes appear during its screening.

China and the United States have established the Sino-US Partnership on Smoke-free Workplaces, pledging cemented efforts regarding tobacco control in workplaces.

Tobacco use is massively entrenched in developing countries, where one of the biggest worries is the rise of smoking among women, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet.

Having nearly 275 million tobacco users, India ranks second globally and very close to China (approximately 301 million users). But unlike China, where nearly all are smokers and nearly 95 per cent smoke manufactured cigarettes, India accounts for more of smokeless tobacco users — 206 million, says a study published today (August 17) in The Lancet .

The study analysed the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted between October 2008 and March 2010. The data from 14 low and middle-income countries that “collectively contribute to most of the disease burden attributable to tobacco use” was compared with that of the U.K and the U.S. The number of people surveyed was different in the case of each country. India had the highest number surveyed, both of men and women.