Smoke at home only if your wife permits

Special Correspondent

PATNA: Come October, a man can smoke at home only if his wife allows him to do so, Union Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss has said.

Necessary rules had been framed for the enforcement of the law to ban smoking inside a private or public building from Gandhi Jayanti. It would be a cognisable offence. One could smoke only in open spaces such as roads and parks, the Minister said at a function on the occasion of the World Population Day. Even homes would come under barred zones to check passive smoking.

Mr. Ramadoss said the war against tobacco had to be dealt with an iron fist, given that it claimed more than 10 lakh lives annually and 14 per cent of school children were its victims. He was confident that the National Tobacco Preventive Mission would achieve its objective of bringing down the number of those affected. Awareness campaign would be launched in all schools and it would be backed by clinics in all the districts.

Dr. Ramadoss was particularly severe on a multinational soft drink. He appealed to school children attending the function to avoid drinking it, pointing out that each can contained seven teaspoons of sugar. He also advised them to keep off junk food, burgers and chips. It was imperative that policies were devised to put down obesity, juvenile diabetes and a host of other health problems.

Dr. Ramadoss, however, ruled out banning such soft drinks.