New Delhi, 3 February
A health organisation has called for total ban on gutka as well as other tobacco-related products on the World Cancer Day today.
"The total ban is a must. But challenges lie ahead. For instance, enforcement remains difficult - without a nation-wide ban. The gutka ban in all states has forced the smokeless tobacco industry to find newer ways to market their harmful products. Now instead of selling gutka, they're selling chewing tobacco and pure Pan Masala in two different packets", said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, Executive Director, Voluntary Health Association of India.
World Cancer Day is observed every year on February 4 with an objective to create awareness about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer among the common people across the world.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide accounting 8.2 million deaths in 2012. In India, tobacco alone is responsible for 1.5 lakh cancers, 4.2 million heart diseases, 3.7 million lung diseases every year. India is the oral cancer capital of the world because of rampant habit of tobacco chewing.
Over 65% of cancer in India is contributed due to tobacco, breast and cervical cancer. Nearly 30% of cancers arise in head and neck region is caused due to non-smoking tobacco used in India.
India spends approximately Rs 300 billion annually in both public and private spending on treatment of tobacco related illness, accounting for roughly one fourth of all health spending.
A study of healthcare costs attributable to tobacco in India estimated that in 2004, the direct medical costs of treating smokeless tobacco-related diseases in India amounted to US$ 285 million. The indirect morbidity costs of smokeless tobacco use, which includes the cost of caregivers and value of work loss due to illness, amounted to US$ 104 million. Thus the total cost of diseases caused by smokeless tobacco use was US$ 389 million (about INR 17.9 billion) in 2004. .
Smokeless tobacco is associated with a 2-4 times increase in the risk for cardiovascular diseases. Asian studies indicate that the mortality risk for women who consume smokeless tobacco is higher than that for men. Use of smokeless tobacco in pregnancy is linked to stillbirths and a 2-3 times higher risk of low birth weight babies. Other health effects of smokeless tobacco use include caries of tooth, receding of gums, high blood pressure, a debilitating condition known as oral sub-mucous fibrosis (OSF), and cancers of the mouth and food pipe.
While many people are aware that tobacco is dangerous, the majority of users are not aware about the lethal connection between chewing tobacco and fatal diseases like cancers or that product like betel quid or mishri or gutka are dangerous.
India has the highest prevalence of oral cancer globally, with 75,000 to 80,000 new cases of oral cancers in a year. A report prepared by experts of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) to study the harmful effects of gutka specifies India alone accounts for 86 per cent of the total oral cancer figure across the world. What is more shocking is that chewing tobacco and gutka contribute to 90 per cent of oral cancer cases in the country.
Gutka has now been banned in India under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulation no 2.3.4 to prohibit the addition of tobacco or nicotine in food (and thereby banning Gutka) which was issued on 1st August, 2011. A total of 26 States and 6 Union Territories have banned the sale, manufacture and distribution of gutka and pan masala (having tobacco or nicotine).
No comments:
Post a Comment