Indian Medical Association Demands Ban on Smoking Scenes in Films

• The Indian Medical Association (IMA) demanded a “blanket” ban on smoking scenes in films, saying the caption at the bottom cautioning viewers about the negative health effects of smoking has “failed” to deter people from taking to smoking.
  
• “We demand a complete ban on smoking scenes in films. The caption below the scene that ‘smoking is injurious to health’ does not stop people emulating the smoking character depicted in the film,” said IMA Secretary General, Dr KK Aggarwal.
  
• According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-India 2010), about 35 percent of adults in India consume tobacco in some form or the other.
• The estimated number of tobacco users in India is 27.5 crore, with 16.37 crore users of smokeless tobacco, 6.9 crore only smokers and 4.23 crore users of both smoking and smokeless tobacco.

(With PTI inputs)