Question

Attempt ANY ONE of the following in 100-120 words. (1 x 5 = 5)
A)   You came across the following advertisement published in Public Interest by the Ministry of Health.  You feel that despite rising taxes and restrictions against smoking in India, there are still 260 million in the country and the number is still rising. Taking ideas from the advertisement with your own ideas, write a paragraph for your school magazine.


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Answer 1

Explanation:

Smoking in India has been known since at least 2000 BC when cannabis was smoked and is first mentioned in the Atharvaveda (compiled c. 1200 BC – c. 1000 BC). Fumigation (dhupa) and fire offerings (homa) are prescribed in the Ayurveda for medical purposes and have been practiced for at least 3,000 years while smoking, dhumrapana (धूम्रपान) (literally "drinking smoke"), has been practiced for at least 2,000 years. Tobacco was introduced to India in the 17th century. It later merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis).

Smoking in public places was prohibited nationwide from 22 October 2002. There are approximately 120 million smokers in India. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers. More than 1 million people die every year due to tobacco related illnesses.[1] As of 2015, the number of men smoking tobacco in India rose to 108 million, an increase of 36%, between 1998 and 2015 [2]

Answer 2

Every day, children and youths in the United States are exposed to a wide array of persuasive, carefully crafted commercial messages encouraging the use of tobacco products. In 1991 the tobacco industry spent $4.6 billion—more than $12.6 million a day, $8,750 a minute—on advertising and promoting* cigarette consumption, and over $100 million on advertising and promoting smokeless tobacco products.1 During the past 15 years, the tobacco industry has nearly quadrupled its marketing expenditures, at a time when tobacco consumption has been declining. Each day, approximately 3,500 Americans quit smoking and an additional 1,200 tobacco customers and former customers die of smoking-related illness; therefore, maintaining current levels of tobacco use and revenues requires that approximately 5,000 new smokers be recruited every day (about 2 million a year).2 Children and youths constitute the most likely source of new smokers. The 1991 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse data reveal that the large majority (89%) of persons ages 30-39 who ever smoked daily tried their first cigarette by age 18, and 62% by age 16; over three quarters (77%) were smoking daily before age 20.3 At least 3 million American teenagers smoke regularly and 3 million people who regularly use smokeless tobacco are under age 21.4