31 May is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day. We are celebrating today the World No Tobacco Day, but irony is that in coming 24 hours, 2,739 people will lose their lives in India due to cancer caused by use of tobacco and other tobacco products. This day alone in WB 411 people will lose their lives. Strikingly, it has been found that 438 children starts tobacco consumption daily in WB.
General perception about smokeless or chewing tobacco is that it is safer than cigarettes and bidis, as it does not cause heart disease, but according to experts, tobacco consumed in any form is injurious to health. Using tobacco whether in form of smoking or chewing causes cancer, heart diseases and other severe ailments.
Tobacco use is classified as ‘disease’ under International classification of diseases (ICD-10). This is because the quit rates are very low – only about 3% in India. With such a low probability of quitting and such a high probability of tobacco use leading to a multitude of diseases, the prevalence of tobacco has been rightly termed as the Tobacco Epidemic.
World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is on May 31 and this year the theme is ‘Tobacco and Heart Disease’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners will make people aware about the link between tobacco and cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, which combined are the world’s leading cause of death.
Dr Sourav Datta, Senior Oncologist, Narayana Superspeciality Hospital - Howrah and Patron of Voice of Tobacco Victims campaign said, “tobacco is the singlemost known and preventable cause of cardio-vascular death and disability in the world. Chemicals like nicotine are constrictive in nature leading to coronary problems. It is commonly known that smoking increases the risk of heart disease but the fact is that smokeless forms of tobacco are equally harmful.”
As per Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-2) 2016-17, in India consumption of smokeless tobacco is far more than smoked tobacco. The data shows that 42.4% of men, 14.2% of women and 28.6% of all adults currently either smoke and or use smokeless tobacco. As per data, 19% of men, 2% of women and 10.7% of all adult currently smoke tobacco, while 29.6% of men, 12.8% of women and 21.4% of all adults currently use smokeless tobacco. Smokeless tobacco users at 19.9 crores are far more than 10 crore smokers, whether cigarettes or bidis.
In West Bengal, as per GATS-2, 48.5% of men, 17.9 % of women and 33.5 % of all adults currently either smoke and or use smokeless tobacco. As per data, 31.7 % of men, 0.9 % of women and 16.7 % of all adult currently smoke tobacco, while 22.8 % 0f men, 17.2 % of women and 20.1 % of all adults currently use smokeless tobacco.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor Surgical Oncology from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai said tobacco consumption, in any form, does not spare any of the body part from its harmful effects. Even smokeless tobacco causes similar ill effects in direct or indirect forms. Apart from causing direct damage to the vessels of our body, it causes significantly increased mortality after the heart attack, in people consuming smokeless tobacco.”
The health expenditure of the government as well as society is manifold more than the revenue and employment generated by all forms of tobacco.
Sanjay Seth, Trustee Sambandh Health Foundation(SHF) said that tobacco use is estimated to cause nearly about 10% of all cardiovascular (CV) disease. Given the large burden of CV disease in India, the impact of this is huge. He added that while governments are budgeting large outlays for setting up healthcare facilities there should be greater focus on prevention strategies, chief among them being reduction of tobacco usage.
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