National Tobacco Control Act and

enforcement strategies

Dr.Rajive K. DikshitDr.Rajive K. Dikshit MD,FCCM,MPHMD,FCCM,MPH

MO I/CMO I/CDepartment of health & Family WelfareDepartment of health & Family Welfare

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand

TOBACCO CONTROL ACT, TOBACCO CONTROL ACT, 20032003

Cigarettes and Other tobacco products(Prohibition of Advertisement and

Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act,

2003

SCOPE OF THE ACTThe Act is applicable to all products

containing tobacco in any form i.e. cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, bidis, gutka, pan masala (containing tobacco) khaini, mawa, mishri, snuff etc. as detailed in the schedule to the Act.

The Act extends to whole of India.

Provisions under the

Tobacco Control Act, 2003

MAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ACT

Prohibition of smoking in public places.

Prohibition of advertisement, sponsorship and

promotion of tobacco products.

Prohibition of sale of tobacco products to minors.

Prohibition of sale of tobacco products near educational institutions.

Display of pictorial health warning on tobacco products packs.

Regulation of tar and nicotine contents of tobacco products.

Section 4 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003 provides;

Smoking in all “public places” is prohibited.

A “public place” means any place to which the public have access, whether as of right or not, and includes auditorium, hospital buildings, railway waiting room, amusement centers, restaurants, public offices, court buildings, educational institutions, libraries, public conveyances and like which are visited by general public but does not include any open space.

Creation of smoking areas – In restaurants, hotels and airports smoking areas are to be physically segregated in such a manner that the air from these areas does not circulate to the non- smoking areas.

Display of prominent non smoking signs is mandatory at all public places.

Prohibition on smoking in public places

Notification of New Rules on Ban on Smoking in Public Places

Rules on ban on smoking in public places notified vide G.S.R. 417(E) dated 30th May, 2008.

These Rules cover all public places including workplaces, refreshment rooms, banquet halls, discotheques, canteen, coffee house, pubs, clubs, Hookah bars, bars, shopping malls and cinema halls, airport lounge, and the like.

Impose liability on the person incharge of a Public Place to ensure that the public place under his jurisdiction is a smoke free place.

Notification of New Rules on Ban on Smoking in Public Places

Boards containing the warning “No Smoking Area- Smoking Here is an Offence” to be displayed prominently at the entrance of public places.

These Rules came into force on 2nd October, 2008

Give detailed technical specifications of the defined smoking area/place.

A list of authorized persons to act and compound offences relating to public smoking.

Prohibition of advertisement, promotion and sponsorship of all tobacco products

Section 5 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003 provides :

Both direct & indirect advertisement of tobacco products prohibited in all forms of audio, visual and print media

Total ban on sponsoring of any sport and cultural events by cigarette and other tobacco product companies

No trade mark or brand name of

cigarettes or any tobacco product to be promoted in exchange for sponsorship, gift, prize or scholarship

No person, under contract or otherwise, to promote or agree to promote any tobacco product.

Amendment Rules for Section 5

The rules relating to prohibition of advertisement, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products were amended and notified on 31st May 2005, further amended in October 2006.

Amendment rules notified in 2005

Ban on sale of tobacco products through vending machines

Ban on sale of tobacco products by minors Restrictions on the content, size and

number of point of sale of advertisements Ban on visible stacking of tobacco

products at the point of sale to prevent easy access to minors

To prevent brand sharing and surrogate advertising of tobacco products; ‘indirect advertising’ has been comprehensively defined.

Amendment rules………contd. Ban on display of tobacco

products or their use in movies or television

Health warning to be placed as a prominent bottom scroll in cinema and television programmes, which have been produced prior to this notification

Ban on display of names / logos of tobacco brands in any manner during media coverage of international events sponsored by tobacco manufacturers.

Prohibition on Sale to Minors

Section 6 (a) of Tobacco Control Act, 2003 provides;

Sale of tobacco products to persons under the age of 18 is prohibited.

The seller should ensure that the person who is buying the tobacco product is not a minor.

A display board to be put up at the point of sale declaring that “sale of tobacco products to minors is prohibited”.

Sale of cigarettes & other tobacco products to minors is prohibited

Prohibition on sale of tobacco products near educational

institutions

Section 6 (b) of Tobacco Control Act, 2003 provides;

In order to restrict access of youth for tobacco products, the sale of the same is prohibited in an area within radius of 100 yards of any educational institution.

Students displaying boards in their schools prohibiting sale of tobacco products within the 100 yards of educational institutions in Delhi

A display board to be put up outside the educational institutions declaring the same.

Health warnings on tobacco products packs

Section 7 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003 provides;

All tobacco product packages to carry prominent and legible health warnings.

These warning shall also be pictorial in nature.

The warnings will given in the same language as given on the pack.

All imported tobacco products should also carry the specified warnings.

PROVISIONS TO BE IMPLEMENTED……..

Provisions related to display of pictorial health warning on tobacco products packs have been notified on 15 March 2008 and will be implemented w. e. f. 31st May, 2009.

The rules related to “Regulation of tar and nicotine contents of tobacco products” will be notified once laboratory capacity is built to test the tar and nicotine contents.

Enforcement agencies and mechanisms

Any police officer, not below the rank of Sub-Inspector

Any officer of State Food or Drug Administration

Any other officer, holding the equivalent rank being not below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police

- Any other Official as authorized by the Central/State Governments.

Action to be taken at state level

Notify authorized officers for the effective implementation of the various provisions of the Act in the State/UT

Establish dedicated State Tobacco Control Cells.

Give wider publicity in print and electronic media for the provisions of the Act.

Setting up of Steering/Monitoring Committee at State/District level.

Establish a mechanism /system for reporting violations at state level e.g. Quit line/Helpline

Action to be taken at state level

Display Act and Rules on the official web-site.

Develop effective mechanisms for enforcement and monitoring of the provisions of the Act by:

• reporting violations of any provisions of the Act by general public/civil society and taking immediate action on such reporting;

• conducting regular raids in public places to prevent smoking in public places;

• ensuring that the “No sale to minors” , “No smoking in public places” and “No sale around educational institutions” boards are duly installed;

• ensuring removal/confiscation of hoardings and other material which amount to advertisement of tobacco products etc,.

Section - 4

‘Prohibition on smoking in public places’

List of authorized officers as per notification of new rules on ban on smoking in Public Places

SI.No.

Person Authorized to take action Description of

1. Inspectors of Central Excise/Income-tax Customs/Sales Tax/Health/Transport and above

All Public Places within their jurisdiction

2. Station master/Asstt. Station Master/Station Head/Station incharge

Railways and all its premises

3. All Gazetted Officers of State/Central Government or equivalent rank and above in Autonomous Organizations/PSU

Government offices/premises and offices of the autonomous bodies and corporations

4. Director/Medical Superintendent/Hospital Administrator Government and 5. Post master and above Respective post Office

in their jurisdiction6. Head of the Institution/HR Manager/Head of administration Private

Offices/Workplaces7. College/School/Headmaster Principal/Teacher Respective Educational

Institutions8. Librarian/Asstt. Librarian/Library incharge/other

administrative staff in library.Libraries/Reading Rooms

9. Airport Manager/Officers of Airport Authority of India and Officers of all schedule Airlines

Airports

10. Director Public Health/Director Health Services All Public Places11. In charge administration in Central/State Government All Public Places12. Nodal Officers/Focal Points of Anti-Tobacco Cell at District

and State levelAll Public Places

STEP by STEP Approach

Display boards as per specifications in non smoking areas.Notify and display the name of a person to whom a

complaint may be made, in case someone is found violating the law.

Train and inform the persons within the institutions responsible for implementing the act, including their duties, responsibilities under the law. The consequence of non-compliance is clearly spelt out. Also, train the enforcers about the mechanism of issuing challan /compounding of offences and imposing fine.

Educate the staff about the provisions of the smoke-free rules.

Constitute a core group/task force for regular monitoring, surprise checks to and ensure monitoring & compliance.

The funds collected by compounding the offence may be deposited in the account as specified by the department of Health

Toll free help-line

1800 - 110 - 456

Models of channelising the funds : MODEL - 1

Create a separate head of account as has been done by Delhi / Gujarat Government under the department of Health in which the fine collected by various agencies/officers are deposited. This will enable Deptt. of Health to use the fund for tobacco control activities. The head under which the fine is to be credited may be indicated at the bottom of the receipt itself.

Models of channelising the funds : MODEL - 2

The fine collected by various agencies may be deposited to a miscellaneous account of department of Health. In case the states have a separate account for National Tobacco Control Programme in the Health Society, the funds may be deposited in this account.

Section - 5

Prohibition of advertisement, promotion

and sponsorship of all tobacco products

Prohibition of advertisement, promotion and sponsorship of all

tobacco products

Steering Committee for monitoring the

violations under Section 5 of the Tobacco

Control Act, 2003 was constituted with

representatives from various stakeholders

ministries and civil society and the

Secretary (Health) as its Chairman.

Secretary, Mo H & FW : CHAIRMAN. Members of the committee:

• Shri Sachin Pilot, MP JS, Min of I & B, GOI. JS Min of Law & Justice, GOI. JS Dept of Consumer Affairs, GOI. Director General, DAVP, GOI. Director General PIB. Rep from Advertising Standard Council of India

(ASCI). Rep of Press Council of India.

NGO’s

Ms. Shoba John, PATH Canada. Monika Arora, HRIDAY, New Delhi Shri R Arul, Pasumai Thaayagam, Chennai. Shri Alok Mukhopadhyay, VHAI, New Delhi.

Steering Committee decisions

A meeting of the Committee was held on 21st Feb 2008 and following decisions were taken:

Matter related to violation of section – 5 to be taken up with Controller General, Patents Design & Trademark for follow up and appropriate action

State/Dist level Steering/Monitoring Committees to be constituted.

Online system of reporting violations on the MoHFW website being established. Director PH is the Nodal Person for follow-up action of the violations reported. (dirph-mohfw@nic.in)

A dedicated awareness campaign regarding the committees to be launched.

All the specific cases being referred to states for follow-up action.

Constitution of State & District level committees

Members of the committee at State level

Secretary, Health & Family Welfare

Chairman

State Focal Point Member Secretary

Rep of Dte GHS Member

Representative of the DG of the State Police

Member

Representative of a leading NGO working in the field of Health/Tobacco Control (to be nominated by Health Secretary

Member

Academician /Psychologist /Sociologist (one each to be nominated by Secretary -H)

Member

Partnering together to fulfill

the vision of a healthy, tobacco

free world