BHUBANESWAR: On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, experts and anti-tobacco activists on Sunday appealed to people of the state not to consume tobacco products which are unhealthy for the body in the long run.
It can cause many types of cancer.
Lalatendu Sarangi, director of the Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer (AHPGIC) Cuttack, said tobacco products are the major contributor of cancer and other lifestyle diseases in the state.
“If you stop consuming tobacco products, you can prevent 50 per cent of cancer diseases.
So prevention is better than cure,” he added.
He said people will get oral cancer and lung cancer if they smoke tobacco.
If anybody chews tobacco, he/she may get oral cancer and esophageal cancer.
Tobacco affects every organ in one form or another, he added.
“Previously, people were developing cancer after chewing tobacco for 10 or 15 years, but now I find the pouch containing tobacco products creates serious danger for the younger generation who gets cancer after consuming smokeless tobacco for four to six years.
It is high time we should stop it at source,” said Sarangi.
The state government has imposed a ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and distribution of gutkha and panmasala containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients since January 3, 2013.
The then health minister had assured that the government will implement the regulations with all sincerity, but it remains on paper only.
Activists alleged that many shops do not obey the ban order of the state government and sell these gutkha and panmasala products containing tobacco.
They demanded strong actions against sellers and manufacturers of these banned products.
Mostly Pan shops and ration shops sell these items without fear and question, they added.
Padma Charan Nayak, noted prohibitionist and anti-tobacco campaigner, said the state government should implement its ban order in letter and spirit.
Police should conduct raids and impose fines on the manufacturers and sellers across the state.
“Public should refrain from consuming these tobacco products for their own health benefit,” he added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013 had classified air pollution like tobacco products as the cause of cancer.
Global Adult Tobacco Survey’s Odisha Fact Sheet 2016-17, released in January, 2018 revealed that 42.
9 per cent of the population in Odisha chew tobacco and their number is double the national average of 21.
4 per cent.
The survey, conducted jointly by the Union health ministry and the WHO, said 8.
6 per cent of the people in the state used betel with tobacco, 16.
9 per cent used khaini, 9.
4 per cent used gutkha and 8.
6 per cent consumed paan masala with tobacco.