Anti-tobacco groups in the country are up in arms against the smokeless tobacco industry which they claim is resorting to misleading advertisements that undermines the ill-effects of chewing gutka.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Voluntary Health Association of India executive director Bhavna Mukhopadhyay said: “The smokeless tobacco industry has recently resorted to giving misleading advertisements to the print publications thereby trying to influence the minds of the people. Gutka (chewing tobacco) industry is trying to make mockery of the ban issued by the government. These advertisements are a misleading campaigns and the tobacco industry is just trying to regain its profits.”

‘We have brought in stringent laws to check smoking in public places’

Members of various non-government organisations working in the area of tobacco control have demanded that Delhi too join the various States across the country and ban gutka/smokless tobacco products sale in the Capital which will have a direct health benefit for over 10 lakh gutka users specially youngsters. Voluntary Health Association of India executive director Bhavna Mukhopadhyay said: “We have met with the Delhi Chief Minister on Monday and asked her to consider the ban.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the World No Tobacco Day was observed all across on Thursday, there are efforts to achieve the goal of making Cuttack and Khurda districts smoke-free.

NGOs have claimed that recent reports suggesting that one of the pictorial warnings for tobacco products resembles footballer John Terry could be an attempt by the manufacturers to scuttle the pictorial warnings once again.

In a recent RTI filed by the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), the issue was brought to the notice of Union health ministry earlier in November by Philip Morris, manufacturer of the leading cigarette brand Marlboro. “However, digging the issue once again now could be a deliberate move by the manufacturers to put the warnings in trouble.”

Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA) - an NGO working to make the state tobacco-free, has come out strongly against state government’s plan to allow beedi and cigarette units to se

Three years after implementation of the no-smoking rules that came into effect on October 2, 2008, over 42,194 people have been fined/challaned and over Rs.30 lakh has been collected by the Delhi G

Government agencies not taking action against defaulters: study

More than five months after the ban on use of plastic pouches for sale of tobacco products came into effect on March 1 this year, small and big manufacturers of pan masala and chewing tobacco are still violating the rule openly, a recent survey by Voluntary Health Association of India and eight other partners has found.

More than five months after the ban on use of plastic pouches containing tobacco products by a Supreme Court verdict came into effect, which stated that manufacturers of gutkha, tobacco and pan mas

More than five months after the Supreme Court issued a ban on the sale of tobacco products in plastic pouches with effect from March 1, all small and big manufacturers of chewing tobacco and pan masala are now violating the rule openly.

The Chief Ministers of 11 States have pledged their support to fight the growing menace of tobacco products like gutka and khaini .
The month-long activity that started in May included tobacco abuse victims along with oncologists meeting their respective Chief Ministers and urging them to protect the people of their States from the harmful effects of tobacco products by banning gutka , implementi