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Almost 250 million adults consume smokeless tobacco in India and 10 other countries in WHO's South-East Asia Region, accounting for 90% global smokeless tobacco users, according to WHO. The world health body said the figure is in addition to 250 million smokers in the region. Given the high number of users and serious health consequences of tobacco use, nations in the region have set a target for 30% reduction in prevalence of current tobacco use by persons over 15 years age.
The WHO said oral cancer is the most common cancer caused by smokeless tobacco and the SE-Asia Region carries the highest burden of oral cancer with over 95,000 oral cancer cases each year.
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said over half of all oral cancers in Asia are caused by tobacco. Oral cancer affects the poor, who have a greater exposure to smokeless tobacco.
Studies in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand have shown that both smoking and use of smokeless tobacco are more prevalent among the less educated and illiterate population.
Smokeless tobacco is associated with a 2 4 times increase in risk for cardiovascular diseases. Asian studies indicate that mortality risk for women who consume smokeless tobacco is higher than that for men. Use of smokeless tobacco in pregnancy is linked to stillbirths and has 2 3 times higher risk of low birth weight babies. 'Use of smokeless tobacco is rampant in South East Asia. Lack of public awareness and incomplete knowledge about the harmful effects of smokeless tobacco are powerful obstacles in creating effective tobacco control policies,' WHO Regional Director (South-East Asia) Samlee Plianbangchang said.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi who has been incessantly campaigning against tobacco use for a long time, tells us more about the dangers of different types of smokeless tobacco.
Dangers of gutka, khaini and other forms of smokeless tobacco
Sold as mouth fresheners or something similar, these products use menthol, perfume, spices, sugar, etc. to mask the bitter taste of tobacco and other carcinogens and get youngsters hooked. The truth is that tobacco remains the most dangerous consumer product in the world in the 21st century which kills half its patrons (and I see many of them every day, those who ve been disfigured by the most horrible forms of oral and mouth cancer) and its very existence is a bane to mankind.
In India, tobacco causes 45% of all cancer deaths and 20% of all deaths. People find it impossible to quit because of the addictive nature of the chemical nicotine so addictive that WHO considers tobacco addiction a disease which sadly afflicts one out of every three Indian. Along with tobacco, gutka and pan masala contains other harmful metal content like lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, copper and nickel. Areca nut or betel nut one of the main ingredients of all these products is a confirmed carcinogen according to WHO and a cause of severe illnesses. (Read: Have you joined the War on Tobacco)
Adverse effects of areca nut
As a result India has one of the highest oral cancer rates in the world (1 lakh every year) and half of them die within the first 12 months of diagnosis. (Read more: Ban on gutka, pan masala, khaini, supari can we finally say goodbye?)
With inputs from DNA