Crackdown on smoking on screen

World Brief

By BRYAN PEARSON

India used World No Tobacco Day Tuesday to announce it would crack down on scenes depicting smoking in films and on TV, after an increase in the number of women and youths taking up smoking.

India, which accounts for one-sixth of tobacco illnesses worldwide, has ratified a global anti-smoking treaty but is finding it tough to implement laws that ban smoking in public places.

Half the men in India use tobacco, while use among women varies between 2% and 21%, depending on the region. Some 2,200 Indians die daily from tobacco-related diseases.