Acommittee appointed by the Union Health Ministry has suggested increasing the fine for smoking in public places from Rs 200 to Rs 20,000 and banning the sale of loose cigarettes. Coming down hard on smokers, the real danger that authorities have not been able to crack down on is the more carcinogenic tobacco consumption in the form of gutka, khaini, zarda among others. The SLT or smokeless tobacco products encompasses all tobacco products that are consumed in an unburned form, used orally or nasally. As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) India 2010 smokeless tobacco are the most consumed, with 206 million Indians using it. According to the survey, current tobacco users in any form account for 34.6 per cent of the adult population in India. Tobacco smokers account for 14 per cent of population (24.3 percent of males and 2.9 of females) while smokeless tobacco users (including khaini, gutka, betel quid with tobacco and others) are 25.9 per cent of the adult population. Almost 33 per cent of adult males and 18.4 percent of adult females were smokeless tobacco users. Evidence suggests that chewing tobacco is associated with oral cancer and is virtual poison and can cause non healing ulcerative lesions in the oral cavity and can also affect the food pipe and kidney. The Indian Council of Medical Research has shown the number of people afflicted by oral cancer rising steadily from 66,129 in 2008, 68,160 in 2009 to 70,261 in 2010. India has the highest prevalence of oral cancer in the world with around 75,000 new cases reported annually. The former union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in Parliament in 2011 attributed the high number of oral cancer cases to smokeless tobacco products quoting from the GATS research that there were more than 3000 chemical ingredients in chewing tobacco products, 28 of which are proven carcinogens. Smokeless tobacco products affect those in the lower socio economic bracket and are also popular among adolescents and women. Chewing tobacco products are often marketed giving people the impression
that they can serve as breath fresheners, teeth cleansers and stress relievers.
Under section 87 A of the Goa Public Health
(Amendment) Act, 2005 all injurious food articles
containing tobacco are prohibited or banned from
their manufacture for sale, distribution or sale or
stocking or storing in the entire state of Goa.
In other states, the food safety and standards regulations
lays down that tobacco and nicotine shall not
be used as ingredients in any food products.
Goa’s ban under the Goa Public Health Act is a permanent
ban unlike that of other states under the
Food Safety and Standards Act which is required to
be renewed annually.
In many states the ban effectively remains on
paper and has only resulted in the products being
sold at a premium.
Director food and drugs administration (FDA) Salim
Veljee said two years ago getting stock in the state
wasn’t difficult despite the ban. Things changed once
neighbouring states also imposed the ban. Within the
past one year, FDA has carried out seven raids and has
found very small quantities being sold at roadside gaddas.
The perpetrators who lost business with the ban
have gotten smarter and have also begun selling
paan masala separately and tobacco sachets separately.
“We require an all India ban on tobacco so that such
offshoots don’t come up,” Veljee says.
Prior to the ban Star, Power and Goa Gutka were
popular brands out of the 12 brands available and
sold in small sachets for as little as Rs 1.
Oncologist Shekhar Salkar says banning helps as it
acts as a deterrent to youngsters and young initiators.
Cyrus Gordon finds the committee’s recommendation
of raising the ban for smoking in public places to Rs
20,000 to be ridiculous. “Besides gutka being more
harmful, people spit it around, dirtying walls and the
roads. The stains don’t go easily and their saliva spewed
everywhere makes it very unhygienic.”
