However there are some good practice examples too. There is a ban on tobacco advertising in all countries of the region and all countries, except Indonesia, have banned smoking in public places. Nepal, Maldives and Thailand have banned advertising, promotion and CSR activities of tobacco companies. E-cigarettes are banned in 6 out of 11 countries of southeast Asia region- Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Thailand imposes a very high tax of 78.6% on cigarettes.
Some countries have also made good progress in implementing larger pictorial/graphic health warnings (PHW) on tobacco products, which is an evidence backed effective measure to reduce tobacco use. Timor Leste has enforced the largest PWH (92.5%) on tobacco packs, followed closely by Nepal (90%), Maldives (90%), India (85%) and Thailand (85%).
Nandita Murukutla, Vice President of Research at Vital Strategies, calls for increasing tobacco taxes as they can drive down smoking rates, deter initiation among youth, and generate revenue that can pay for other health interventions. She cites graphic pack warnings and plain packaging as other proven high-impact, low-cost interventions, and insists upon investing more in media as media campaigns can reshape social norms and drive millions to quit.
Tobacco not only damages the health of people but also destroys our environment, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste of tobacco products. Keeping this in mind, the theme of World No Tobacco Day 2022 is "Tobacco: Threat to our environment". It aims to raise awareness among the public on the environmental impact of tobacco and to expose efforts by tobacco companies to "greenwash" their reputation by marketing themselves as environmentally friendly. This global campaign calls for reducing tobacco consumption as a key lever for achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals and not just those directly related to health.
Shobha Shukla - CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Shobha Shukla is the award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service) and is a feminist, health and development justice advocate. She is a former senior Physics faculty of prestigious Loreto Convent College and current Coordinator of Asia Pacific Regional Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media). Follow her on Twitter @shobha1shukla or read her writings here www.bit.ly/ShobhaShukla)
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