Friday, September 2 2005 17:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The ban on "smoking scenes" in films and TV serials will come into force from October 2, Gandhi Jayanti day, Union Health Minister Dr R Anbumani announced here today (Sept 2, 2005).

Brushing aside the film industry's opposition to the ban, he told a press meet "the ban is a law. All the citizens should abide by the law." The Centre was also contemplating bringing in a notification to ensure that a pictorial statutory warning that smoking was injurious to health was printed prominently on the cigarette packet.

Under the notification, the statutory warning should use up at least 50 per cent of the space in the cigarette packet. Such warnings were already in vogue in countries like Canada, he said.

The country might have to think of a total ban on tobacco products in another 10 or 15 years as the number of tobacco related diseases were increasing alarmingly, he said. On the ban on sale of non-iodised salt, he said the Centre had only brought in a draft notification. It would take another two months to issue a final notification. Only after this will the ban come into effect, he said adding only salt meant for human consumption would come under the ban.

"There is no ban on the sale of non-iodised salt for other purposes and there is also no ban on the production of common salt," he clarified.