indiarealtimes.com. UK, 10 de Junio de 2013
India’s Battle to Ban Chewing Tobacco
In September 2010, Mahadev Prasad Sharma, a potato and onion vendor from the eastern Indian state of Bihar, was diagnosed with stage four mouth cancer. In Mumbai, where he went for surgery, the central portion of his lower jaw was removed.
Less than three years later, the cancer returned, this time as two marble-sized, yellowish lumps on the inside of his left cheek. When his surgeon, Pankaj Chaturvedi, told him that the only treatment was another surgery, the 57-year-old man started to sob.
He asked for the operation to be put back a month as his daughter was studying for her computer course exams and he didn’t want to give her bad news.
Mr. Sharma’s cancer is caused by chewing “khaini,” a mixture of tobacco and lime that is popular in Bihar, said his surgeon Mr. Chaturvedi, associate professor and head and neck surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.
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.
“Approximately 85% of the oral cancer patients I treat are either smokers or tobacco chewers,” Mr. Chaturvedi said. “After years of treating thousands of patients, I decided to take action to stop people from using a substance that is proven to cause cancer,” the surgeon added.
He launched a campaign called Voices of Tobacco Victims in 2008 to advocate for more stringent tobacco control in India. The campaign empowers cancer survivors to tell their stories to influence policy makers 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.
The opportunity to advocate for the gutka ban arose with the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2011, under which the central government prohibited the use of tobacco and nicotine as ingredients in any food product.
Gutka is a crushed preparation of tobacco and “paan masala,” a mixture of areca or betel nut, sugar, spices and perfume.
Under the FSSA, gutka can be categorized as a food product, and therefore should not contain substances injurious to health, like tobacco.
The implementation of the FSSA lies with the health ministry of each state. Voices of Tobacco Victims directed its efforts to have the gutka ban implemented at state legislators, and in April 2012, Madhya Pradesh became the first Indian state to ban gutka, said Mr. Chaturvedi.
With the support of other doctors and cancer survivors, he launched similar campaigns and filed public interest litigations in other states and union territories. This month, Karnataka became the last Indian state to make the manufacture and sale of gutka illegal.
The ban’s effect on stopping Indians from chewing tobacco is limited. Pure chewing tobacco and paan masala continue to be sold as two separate packets that users can mix themselves before consumption, said Mr. Chaturvedi.
Para leer esta noticia en su contexto original, por favor visite el siguiente enlace:
To read this information, please follow the link below:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario