Implement ban on gutka, pan masala: FSSAI -Governance Now

Implement ban on gutka, pan masala: FSSAI

Tobacco use is the foremost preventable cause of death and disease globally as well as in India,says activist

Geetanjali Minhas | October 13, 2017 | Mumbai

#supreme court #Pankaj Chaturvedi #nicotine #pan masala #gutka #ban #Tobacco #health ministry

Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sought implementation of the ban on manufacture, sale and distribution of gutka and pan masala with tobacco and nicotine.

The Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) regulations prohibit the use of tobacco and nicotine as ingredients in any food product.

The apex court had directed the authorities concerned in the state/UT's for total compliance of the ban imposed by FSSAI regulations on the manufacturing and sale of gutka and pan masala with tobacco and/or nicotine.

The FSSAI order on October 9 also directs the secretaries, health department of all states and UT’s to file their affidavits within four weeks on the issue of total compliance on the ban imposed on manufacturing and sale of gutka and pan masala with tobacco and or nicotine.

The health ministry’s special leave petition says, “to circumvent the ban on the sale of gutka, the manufacturers are selling pan masala (without tobacco) with flavoured chewing tobacco in separate sachets. Often these sachets are sold together by the same vendors from the same premises so that consumers can buy the pan masala and flavoured chewing tobacco and mix them and consume the same. Hence instead of the earlier "ready to consume mixes", chewing tobacco companies are selling gutka in twin packs to be mixed as one.”

The states of Bihar, Karnataka, Mizoram, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have already complied with the SC order.

‘“The FSSAI recent order is welcome move as it was seen in the past that only state governments/UT's were issuing necessary orders for banning manufacturing and sale of gutkha and pan masala with tobacco and/or nicotine,” says Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital and an anti-tobacco activist.

“Tobacco use is the foremost preventable cause of death and disease globally as well as in India. The consequent burden of mortality and morbidity due to consumption of smokeless tobacco is very high in India. Tobacco causes almost 12 lakh deaths in a year in India. Available evidence suggests that India shares the maximum burden of oral cancer in the World,” he added.

The result of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2016- 2017 reveals 29.6% men,12.8% women and 21.4% adults use smokeless tobacco. Due to initiative taken by the government like ban on certain forms of smokeless tobacco products like gutka and pan masala the number of tobacco users has reduced by about 81 lakh.

Comments

Other News

Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure released

The final ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure’ by ‘India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development’ was released in New Delhi on Monday. The Task Force was led by the

How the Great War of Mahabharata was actually a world war

Mahabharata: A World War By Gaurang Damani Sanganak Prakashan, 317 pages, Rs 300 Gaurang Damani, a Mumbai-based el

Budget expectations, from job creation to tax reforms…

With the return of the NDA to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are now on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s full budget for the FY 2024-25. The interim budget presented in February was a typical vote-on-accounts, allowing the outgoing government to manage expenses in

How to transform rural landscapes, design 5G intelligent villages

Futuristic technologies such as 5G are already here. While urban users are reaping their benefits, these technologies also have a potential to transform rural areas. How to unleash that potential is the question. That was the focus of a workshop – “Transforming Rural Landscape:

PM Modi visits Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh in Moscow

Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by president Vladimir Putin, visited the All Russian Exhibition Centre, VDNKh, in Moscow Tuesday. The two leaders toured the Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh. The Rosatom pavilion, inaugurated in November 2023, is one of the largest exhibitions on the histo

Let us pledge to do what we can for environment: President

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday morning spent some time at the sea beach of the holy city of Puri, a day after participating in the annual Rath Yatra. Later she penned her thoughts about the experience of being in close commune with nature. In a message posted on X, she said: