POLITICAL PARTIES MISSING MOST IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE OF TOBACCO CONSUMPTION
Jaipur,Dr. Pawan Singhal (Head & Neck
Surgeon SMS Hospital,Jaipur) and a Patron of Voice of Tobacco
Victims asked the political parties to include tobacco control in their
manifesto. No political party is even talking about tobacco,. even though it is
the biggest public health problem in India.
How serious the issue is?
In India,
every year in India, around one million new cancer cases are diagnosed and
around 600,000 to 700,000 people die from cancer. Around two-fifths (40%) of
all cancers in India are attributable to tobacco use and the economic costs of
illness and premature death due to tobacco consumption exceed combined
government and state expenditure and state expenditure on medical and public
health, water supply and sanitation. (Challenges to effective cancer control in
China, India and Russia, April 2014 – The Lancet Oncology).
Vikram Singh Raghav, Project Director
, Rajasthan Voluntary Health Association (RVHA) told as per the GATS released by the
MoHFW (2010), 1.49 Crore Rajasthanis are consuming tobacco in some or the other
form. One-third of them will be diseased by the serious illnesses such as
cancer, heart diseases, lung cancers etc and will die prematurely deaths.During these
elections, not one political party is talking about saving the children of
India who are consuming tobacco even from the age of 8 years. Every day in
India, 5500 children start to use tobacco in some or the other form. Children
are consuming tobacco instead of toffees and ice-cream. Is this not serious for
the political party leaders? Tobacco industry is known to contribute heavily to
political parties. Is this making the parties blind to the suffering of
millions?Hazards of tobacco are unlimited. There’s no body part which is not affected by
it. Political leaders need to save our children from this deadly product. The
issue of tobacco must be included in election manifestos.
Smokeless
tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive. There are 3095 chemical
components in tobacco, among them 28 are proven carcinogen. The major and most
abundant group of carcinogens is the tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNA) and
N-nitrosoamino acids. The nitrosamine level is directly related to the risk of
cancer. Scientific evidence has established that tobacco chewing causes cancer
of mouth, oesophagus (food pipe), larynx and pharynx (throat), pancreas,
stomach, kidney and lung. It can also cause high blood pressure and other life
threatening cardiovascular conditions like myocardial ischemia, stroke etc.The
use of smokeless tobacco during pregnancy can cause still birth, low birth
weight, premature delivery, anaemia of mother and several complications during
delivery.
Tobacco use is a "pediatric epidemic." The nation's war on smoking hinges on preventing young people from taking up the habit in the first place. To stop that from happening, the political parties have to "reinvigorate" its battle against tobacco. Anti-smoking campaigns need to focus on teenagers and young adults. That means doing a lot more to counter the billions of dollars the tobacco industry still spends on advertising and marketing. So the political parties to include tobacco control in their manifesto as it is the biggest public health problem in India.
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