Srinagar: Stressing on the need to further intensify the anti tobacco drive across the country, World Lung Foundation (WLF) Saturday welcomed the impressive new anti-tobacco mass media campaign currently being aired on TV and radio channels in India. The public service add campaign shows how exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) causes stroke and heart attack.
Notably, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, says that over half of adults in India are exposed to SHS at home and around 30% of adults are exposed to SHS at work. The ad campaign, entitled Clinical, was developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with technical and financial support from World Lung Foundation.
The hard-hitting ad is designed to motivate smokers of cigarettes and bidis to avoid exposing others to second-hand smoke and to motivate non-smokers to avoid exposure to second-hand smoke.
The add graphically depicts a woman who sits near a smoker becoming exposed to SHS that enters her bloodstream and changes her blood platelets in a way that increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Clinical was filmed in India and its effectiveness was assessed in test screenings among Indian audiences. During this rigorous message-testing protocol, the campaign was found to be highly effective in communicating the harms of SHS, particularly on the heart, Voluntary Health Association of India (VHA) said in a statement.
Interestingly, the Clinical campaign was aired nationwide on March 3rd, 2015 and will run for four weeks. It is being broadcast in 17 languages on all major private television and radio channels and on the governments Lok Sabha channel in Hindi language.
India continues to be consistent in delivering blunt warnings about the harms of tobacco. Millions of Indians suffer from health harms related to tobacco use, so our objective with this campaign is to warn people about the deadly dangers of smoking bidis and cigarettes as well as their harmful effects on those who are exposed to second-hand smoke. We intend to continue to air graphic, hard-hitting ads such as Clinical to keep reminding people that they urgently need to quit smoking and to stop exposing others to second-hand smoke, C.K. Mishra, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said while detailing about the campaign.
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