On Monday, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court, requesting that designated smoking zones be removed from commercial establishments and airports, the smoking age be raised from 18 to 21, and the sale of cigarettes be banned near educational institutions, healthcare institutions, and places of worship.
The petition also sought guidelines on increasing the penalty for smoking in public places, banning the sale of loose cigarettes, and developing guidelines for dealing with air filtering in smoking zones.
The plea stated that,
"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 nonsmokers. Issue directions towards increasing the age to smoke from 18 to 21 years.”
According to the petition filed by advocates Shubham Awasthi and Saptarishi Mishra, the sale and addiction of cigarettes in the country as such products affect citizens' right to health, and open smoking in places such as airports, restaurants, and clubs in designated smoking zones influences the adolescent population to take up smoking in the wrong way.
The plea also said that,
“In 2018, 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 cardio-vascular diseases and tobacco among which cigarettes are a major contributor killing 9 million people in India or 9.5 percent of all deaths in India.”
Smoking rates have been rising for the past two decades, and the epidemic has spread to the point that India currently ranks second in the smokers' category for the 16-64 age group, it claimed.
According to the petition, a study published in the Journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research highlighted the substantial economic burden of secondhand smoke exposure in India.
As per the survey, secondhand smoke costs Rs 567 billion in health care costs each year. The PIL stated that,
“This accounts for eight 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.”
The plea further added that,
“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.”
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