Jaipur, On World Cancer Day, health
experts urge people to stay away from tobacco, as the number of cancer patients
is increasing day by day. India has become the oral cancer capital of the
world. Tobacco is one of the biggest causes of cancer accounting for more than
10% of the 13.5 lakh Indians who die every year due to tobacco-related
illnesses. Unlike many cancers for which causes are not known, 90% of oral and
lung cancers as also so many others are preventable as tobacco is the cause.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor and Surgeon, Department of
Head Neck Surgery, Tata Memorial Center said, "About ninety percent of my patients are tobacco users. We are seeing
smokeless users getting cancer at younger age and the mortality rates are high.
Most users start in their youth when they are more susceptible to advertising
and promotion. It’s heart-breaking to see young lives cut short in their prime.
We need a movement against gutka, khaini, pan masala, etc to save our youth.”
India’s
problem is chewing tobacco more than smoking. 10.7% of adult Indians (age 15
and above) smoke while those who chew are 21.4% (as per Global Adult Tobacco
Survey, 2017). The advertisements of pan masala continue in India which are surrogate
for tobacco products bearing the same name. As per the Cigarettes & Tobacco
Products Act (COTPA), direct or indirect advertisements of tobacco products is
prohibited
Smokeless
Tobacco (SLT) users are 21.4% of all adults (aged 15+) against 10.7% smokers in
the country. Tripura (48%), Manipur (47.7%), Odisha (42.9%) and Assam
(41.&%) are the worst affected states, while Himachal Pradesh (3.1%), Jammu
& Kashmir (4.3%), Puducherry (4.7%) and Kerala (5.4%) are the least hit.
Sambandh
Health Foundation(SHF), Trustee, Sanjay Seth said, “Various programs and big
events have advertisements of pan masala which are surrogate for tobacco
products. Many movie stars promote pan masalas on television, cinemas and even
cricket matches, including Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan. The manufacturers of
chewable tobacco are doing a lot advertising of pan masala, but when you go to buy
pan masala, you get a tobacco pouch free with it. Sale of such “twin packs” has
been prohibited by the Honorable Supreme Court in its judgement of September
23, 2016 but there is little enforcement. State Governments must effectively
enforce this in order to save our children, who get attracted by the aggressive
advertising.”
Of the total
SLT users (199.4 million) in the country, 29.6% are male adults and 12.8% are female
according to the GATS 2017. Smoking by
women in India is still socially unacceptable but SLT use is common. Currently,
7 crore women age 15 and older use SLT. Easy availability and low cost of SLT
are key factors promoting SLT use by women.
Doctors say
that women who consume SLT during pregnancy are 70% more prone to anaemia. It
also increases risk of low birth weight and still-birth by two-three times. The
relative risk of oral cancer among women SLT users is eight times higher than
that for men. Similarly, the relative risk of cardiovascular disease among
women SLT users is two to four times higher than in men. Mortality risk is also
higher among women than men.
Dr
Pawan Singhal, Head & Neck Cancer Surgeon, Sawai Man Singh Hospital
and Patron of Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV) Rajasthan said, "The number of users of smokeless tobacco
has increased as earlier anti-tobacco advertisements showed photos of
cigarettes and bidis and people thought that only consuming cigarette and bidis
was harmful and slowly the consumption of SLT increased."
He said, "People chew tobacco for
long time so that nicotine reaches blood, due to which they remain in contact
with bacteria for long time due to which the risk of cancer and other diseases
increases."
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