An overwhelming 72 per cent of respondents to an ICICI Lombard survey on ‘smoking’ have revealed that pictorial warnings have little impact on their smoking habits.
Nearly half of those surveyed in the age group of 22-45 across the country felt that smoking is too addictive a habit to quit.
Also, only 24 per cent of the respondents polled stated that increase in ‘sin taxes’ would compel smokers to give up the habit. About 41 per cent of the nearly 1,000 respondents stated that a stricter imposition on banning smoking in public places would be widely appreciated.
Interestingly, 57 per cent smokers do not own a health insurance policy. As many as 77 per cent of those who had a policy said they own a regular health insurance policy as against a specialised policy with critical illness or one with high deductibles.
These significant findings are part of an ICICI Lombard survey “What’s your stand on smoking?” released today ahead of ‘World No Tobacco Day’ on May 31.
Commenting on the Survey, Sanjay Datta, Chief-Underwriting, Claims & Reinsurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd said: "One of the most alarming findings of the survey was that only 10 per cent of the respondents felt the need to buy a health insurance policy as a measure to combat the problem. It thereby emphasises that as insurers and as a society, we are yet a long way away from spreading full awareness about the ill-effects of smoking.”
Recently, the Centre had amended regulations to mandate health warnings to the extent of 85 per cent of tobacco packages.
This had stirred a lot of debate in the country with some bodies such as the Akhila Bharatiya Beedi Mazdoor Maha Sangh (ABBMMS) even writing to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the new regulations.
ABBMMS had in its submission urged the Prime Minister to order an inquiry into foreign funding of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and alleged that such funding was used to undertake political lobbying to change laws in India.
It had also alleged that the new regulations on pictorial warnings would benefit products of multinational cigarette companies produced outside India and smuggled into India. Their contention is that smuggled cigarettes do not comply with domestic regulations on pictorial warnings.