Confused Food safety authorities have no policy against dry tobacco items

Srinagar, Mar 19: After becoming 15th state to ban Gutkha in 2012, food safety and security authorities have no policy against the dry tobacco items which are freely sold in market in other formats to disguise the order issued by department of Food Safety, Jammu and Kashmir.

Exercising powers vested under clause (a) of sub-section 30 of the Food Safety and Standards Act., Commissioner of Food Safety, Jammu and Kashmir issued a notification [HD/Drug/58/2012] and banned the sale, storage, manufacture and transportation of 'Gutkha' in 2012. However over the passages of at least two years, companies managed to doge the authorities and succeed in selling such products in the market in other forms like Khani which is a tobacco product.

Around 14% of Indian adults smoke cigarettes and "beedis" (hand-rolled cigarettes), but nearly 26% use smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco, according to the Government of India and World Health Organization Global Adult Tobacco Survey of 2009 - 2010.

India has the highest number of oral cancers in the world after a group of entrepreneurs known locally as "gutka barons" turned a 400-year-old tobacco product hand-rolled in betel leaves into a spicy blend sold for 2 cents on street corners from Bangalore to New Delhi. Sales of chewing tobacco, worth 210.3 billion rupees ($4.6 billion) in 2004, are on track to double by 2014, according to Datamonitor, a branch of the international research firm based in Hyderabad, India, now same is the sold in market from Kashmir to Kaniyakumari under new brands and as separate products other than food.

A campaign called 'Voices of Tobacco Victims' in 2008 advocates for more stringent tobacco control in India. The campaign empowers cancer survivors to tell their stories to influence policymakers and raise awareness among other tobacco users about the damaging effects of tobacco on health.

The campaign's greatest success has been to ban the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of "gutka," a form of chewing tobacco commonly consumed in India, including by children.

"Pure chewing tobacco and Paan Masala continue to be sold as two separate packets that users can mix themselves before consumption to disguise ban and they contains chromium, nickel, arsenic and lead as well as tobacco-related nitrosamines, all of which are known carcinogens. Tragically, 0.023% of orphans in Kashmir both girls and boys use such like products, which they usually call as gutka or Khani," Rao Farman Ali said, quoting his research carried on orphans of Jammu and Kashmir. 

An official in Food and Safety department whishing anonymity told early Times that after the ban in 2012, campiness manufacturing 'Gutkha' items have managed to disguise the department by changing the brand names while as the Gutkha continues to flood the market in other forms. "After PIL which later banned 'Gutkha' Companies just changed the brand names and are flooding the market with Khani name brand which is same as the Ghutka," he said.