BACKGROUND: Tobacco use is associated with mortality in low- and middle-income countries including India. Article 11 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) requires parties to display rotated health warnings on tobacco product packaging. Health warnings on packaging are one of the most cost-effective ways to warn the consumers about the health risks of tobacco. Hence the study aimed to assess its compliance for understanding the current status of implementation of packaging law.
METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted to assess tobacco product packs collected from different Point of Sale (PoS) in both districts of Goa. An observational structured checklist was prepared for the analysis of the Tobacco Product packaging as per the section 7, 8 and 9 of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2022. Compliance was assessed using various indicators such as pictorial and textual health warning location, content, coverage, clarity. The surface area occupied by these warnings was measured using a calibrated scale. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.
RESULTS: Among the 42 tobacco product packs analyzed, 69% were smoked form and 31% were smokeless form respectively. Out of 25 cigarette packs, 21 complied with the indicators. However, none of the beedi, foreign cigarette packs and smokeless form were fully compliant. Pictorial Health warning was present on 95.2% products. Only 64.3% of the products had 85% health warning coverage. Other compliance issues included distorted and blurred images, split warnings.
CONCLUSIONS: Smoked Tobacco packs showed higher compliance as compared to smokeless form. The compliance was least for beedi, foreign cigarettes and smokeless tobacco packs. The findings highlight the urgent need for strict enforcement of the COTPA to ensure compliance with health warning requirements.