Holy Smoke!
Increasing use of tobacco is a public health concern. The Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) is one organisation which is dynamically working to make India a smoke-free zone, finds out Sonal Shukla
When Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss came up with an idea of imposing a ban on cinestars smoking on-screen, he received a lot of flak from many sections of the society, but it is indeed a fact that at least 7,00,000 people die every year in India due to tobacco use. From 1.4 per cent of all deaths in 1990, the number is expected to rise to 13.3 per cent in 2020. According to the WHO, India would have the highest rate of rise in tobacco-related deaths during this period, compared to all other countries.
An important nationally representative case-control study of smoking and death in India has recently been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This states daily smoking of even small amounts of tobacco is associated with increase in mortality. Other important studies like the WHO M-Power report states that smoking in person between the ages of 30 and 69 years is responsible for about one in 20 deaths of women and one in five deaths of men. In 2010, smoking will cause about 9,30,000 adult deaths in India, about 70 per cent (90,000 women and 5, 80,000 men) will be between the ages of 30 and 69 years. Because of population growth, the absolute number of deaths in this age group is rising by about three per cent per year. All the alarming facts demand serious efforts at the community health level.
Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) is one organisation which has taken up the cause of tobacco control, both at the policy and the grassroot levels in India. One of the biggest testimonies of VHAI’s dedicated efforts towards the cause is Kottayam, a district in Kerala with a 30 lakh population which was declared the first ‘tobacco free’ district in the country on September 27, 2008.
“Tobacco control has always been a crucial public health concern for VHAI and the organisation has been campaigning against the tobacco industry’s nefarious practices for nearly two decades now,” states Bhavna B Mukhopadhyay, Senior Director- Communication and Development, VHAI.
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