90 percent of smokeless tobacco users live in SE Asia
The 11 countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) Southeast Asia region are home to approximately 250 million adults who consume smokeless tobacco, constituting 90 percent of global smokeless tobacco users.
The figure is in addition to 250 million smokers in the region.
With such a high number of tobacco users and with regard to the serious health consequences of tobacco use, Southeast Asian nations have set a target of 30 percent reduction in the prevalence of tobacco use among persons over 15 years of age.
“The use of smokeless tobacco is rampant in Southeast Asia,” WHO’s regional director for Southeast Asia, Samlee Plianbangchang, said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
“Lack of public awareness and incomplete knowledge about the harmful effects of smokeless tobacco are powerful obstacles to drafting effective tobacco control policies,” he went on.
Oral cancer is the most common cancer caused by smokeless tobacco. Southeast Asia carries the highest burden of oral cancer at over 95,000 cases per year, according to the WHO.
Oral cancer disproportionately affects the poor, who have a greater exposure to smokeless tobacco.
Studies in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand reveal that both smoking and smokeless-tobacco use are more prevalent among less educated and illiterate communities.
Smokeless tobacco is also associated with higher risks of cardiovascular disease, mortality during childbirth, stillbirth and low-birth weight babies
Other health problems include tooth caries, receding of gums, high blood pressure and a debilitating condition known as oral sub-mucous fibrosis.
A lack of information on the health impact of chewing tobacco likely contributes to the low number of attempts to quit by smokeless tobacco users in the region. (ebf)
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