NEW DELHI: A public interest petition (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking directions for removing designated smoking zones from commercial places and airports, increasing the smoking age from 18 to 21, banning the sale of cigarettes near educational institutions, healthcare institutions and places of worship.
The plea further sought direction for increasing the penalty for smoking in public places, banning the sale of loose cigarettes, creating guidelines to handle filtration of air at places which have smoking zones.
“Issue guidelines and directions for closing the dedicated smoking zones at airports, clubs, restaurants, hotels, public places and even in private properties being used for commercial purposes in a phased manner so as not to induce smoking among non-smokers. Issue directions towards increasing the age to smoke from 18 to 21 years,” the plea stated.
The plea, filed by advocates Shubham Awasthi and Saptarishi Mishra, has mentioned that the sale and addiction of cigarettes in the country as such products affect citizen’s right to health and the open smoking in places like airports, restaurants and clubs in designated smoking zones influences the adolescent population wrongly to take up smoking.
“In 2018, the WHO released its factsheet on the prevalence of tobacco consumption in India and it has quoted the younger population in India to be at increased chances of cardiovascular diseases and tobacco among which cigarettes are a major contributor killing nine million people in India or 9.5 per cent of all deaths in India,” the plea said.
In the present times, the rate of smoking has been growing for the last two decades and it has grown into such an epidemic that India now ranks second in the smokers’ category for the 16-64 age group, it claimed.
A study published in the Journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research has flagged the severe economic burden of second-hand smoke exposure in India, the plea stated.
It added that the study revealed that second-hand smoke causes Rs 567 billion in health care costs annually. “This accounts for 8 per cent of total annual health care expenditure, on top of Rs 1,773 billion in annual economic burden from tobacco use. Smoking not only affects lungs but also causes vision loss,” stated the PIL.
The plea added, “It can be seen that due to non-action of different state actors, there has been rampant mushrooming of small stalls selling cigarettes and other tobacco products around different institutions. Recent years have seen an exponential increase in the number of smokers and in order to facilitate such demands, the stalls have opened up around schools, colleges, institutions, hospitals etc. This creates a situation of easy supply and thus helps in making people take up smoking en masse.” (ANI)