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Online Death Clock Highlights Need for Larger Graphic Warnings on Tobacco in India

Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”

(April 4, 2015, New Delhi, India and New York, USA) – Anti-tobacco advocates renewed calls for the Government of India to introduce larger graphic health warnings on tobacco products, taking Sunita Tomar’s dying request online.  Just days before passing away, anti-tobacco campaigner Sunita wrote to India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, demanding larger graphic warnings be implemented immediately.  Sunita died on April 1 after suffering tobacco-related oral cancer.  It was the same day 85% graphic health warnings were to be introduced in India, but the move was delayed after interference from the tobacco industry.

A new online “Death Clock” unveiled at https://www.worldlungadvocacy.org/AnswerSunita  highlights the cost of this delay minute-by-minute, continuously counting the number of people killed by tobacco in India since April 1.  

Tobacco kills nearly one million people each year in India, or one person every 32 seconds.  An “Industry Profits” clock shows the amount of money made by the world’s six biggest tobacco companies – 7.5 billion rupees each day, or 87,000 rupees every second. 

The website includes online tools that allow the public to send social media messages to Prime Minister Modi and other policymakers through Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. 

After being diagnosed with tobacco-related oral cancer at a young age of 27 years, Sunita underwent major surgery and then agreed to tell her story in a Public Service Announcement to raise awareness about the harms of tobacco. Graphic warnings are proven to be highly effective in warning people about the health harms of tobacco, and play an important role in helping prevent children from initiating tobacco use. Large graphic warnings also transcend language barriers in countries like India, where different languages and dialects are used across a large national population. 

Nandita Murukulta, Country Director, India and Director of Global Research and Evaluation, World Lung Foundation, said: “This online death clock shows the alarming cost of tobacco in India – every 32 seconds tobacco claims another life, while the global industry makes billions of profits every day.  This website tells Sunita’s story, highlighting the urgent need for more warnings on the effects of tobacco. Sunita wrote a heartfelt letter to Prime Minister Modi calling for larger graphic health warnings and  we are joining her calls for India to implement 85% larger pack warnings immediately. To join our fight, visit our webpage at https://www.worldlungadvocacy.org/AnswerSunita/  You can “donate” a tweet or Facebook status update which will be sent to the Prime Minister through Thunderclap.  Alternatively, you can tweet your support using #AnswerSunita.” 

Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital was Sunita’s surgeon and was with her in her final days and hours. He said, “We owe it to Sunita to implement large graphic health warnings immediately. It would be a fitting tribute to this brave woman and I urge everyone to join this online campaign.”

Tobacco use in India – a growing health and economic problem

According to The Tobacco Atlas, nearly a quarter (23.2%) of adult males, 3.2% of adult females, 5.8% of boys and 2.4% of girls smoke tobacco in India. In addition, more than a quarter (25.9%) of adults use smokeless tobacco. In total, more than 2,542,000 children and more than 120,000,000 adults in India use tobacco each day. As the use of all forms of tobacco has increased, so has tobacco-related disease and premature death. Tobacco is the cause of 14.3% of male deaths and 4.7% of female deaths in India, killing over 981,100 Indian citizens every year. The government of India acknowledges that tobacco-related disease costs the Indian economy over 1.4 trillion rupees every year – just among adults aged between 35 and 69.  The total cost across all age groups – including illness caused by tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke among children and the elderly – would be higher.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the world today, and is responsible for more than five million deaths each year—one in ten preventable deaths worldwide.   The implementation of graphic pack warnings is one of the World Health Organization’s M-P-O-W-E-R (W=Warn) strategies to reduce tobacco consumption. MPOWER strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which World Lung Foundation is a principal partner.