44%
Indian smokers who quit get hooked to smokeless tobacco: Survey
About 44 per cent of Indians who
quit smoking are found to get hooked to other forms of tobacco which are as
harmful as cigarettes and bidis, a country-wide survey said.
The survey was conducted in all
the 29 states and two union territories and had a sample size of 69,296
individuals aged 15 years and above.
It found that 44.4 per cent of
all successful quitters of smoking switched to using smokeless tobacco, namely
products like plain chewable tobacco leaves, khaini, pan masala, zarda and
gutka. Of all those surveyed, 50.8 per cent men and 8.7 women reported
switching to smokeless tobacco use.
The survey was conducted by
Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies of Sree Chitra Tirunal
Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology here.
K.R. Thankappan, head of Achutha
Menon Centre and principal researcher of the survey, said smokeless tobacco is
as harmful as smoking.
"There has to be a
concerted awareness generation on harms of smokeless tobacco products and
strict enforcement of the ban on pan masala and gutkha containing tobacco or
nicotine," said Thankappan. He said migrant workers are among the prime
users of smokeless tobacco products and it's they who should be targeted by the
awareness campaign.
The survey said the number of
adult current users of smokeless tobacco in India is 206 million, much higher
than 111.2 million tobacco smokers.
Senior Project Fellow and co-author
of the study G.K. Mini said smokeless tobacco use surpasses smoking across
India.
"If switching over is also
added, the disease burden from smokeless tobacco use will be compounded.
Studies have shown that smokeless tobacco users have a high risk for
cancer," said Mini.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
16.06.2016
Never leave
that till tomorrow which you can do today
Benjamin
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