The judiciary has granted the Health Ministry to include pictorial warnings on cigarette packs. The Appeals Court has ruled that the packs should be covered with between 50 and 60 percent pictorial warnings.
The World Health Organization has recommended that cigarette packs in all countries should include pictorial warnings. Accordingly this regulation is being implemented in about 100 countries. As such Minister Maithripala Sirisena drafted a gazette notification in this respect. It was approved by the President and the Cabinet no was also received in addition to the unanimous approval of the Legislature.
But the Ceylon Tobacco Company filed a writ application challenging this decision. Accordingly the case was heard by judges Anil Gunaratne and Malini Gunaratne. Dismissing the writ application The judges rules that cigarette packs should cover between 50 and 60 percent of pictorial warnings on cancer and other smoking-related ailments.
Not only in Sri Lanka but the people in the entire world are impacted as a result of smoking.
The Health Ministry says that 60 to 65 people die daily due to illnesses related to smoking and 27 percent of its annual budget allocation has to be spent on the treatments for patients suffering from illnesses caused by tobacco use. The Sri Lankan Government spend about 4500 million rupees annually to treat patients as a resulting of contracting cancer due to smoking.
Post a Comment