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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : July 6, 2014 12:18 PM IST
In his bid to discourage smoking among youths, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has urged states and Union Territories to impose a Value Added Tax or VAT of at least 50 per cent on all tobacco products to 'make them less affordable'. Mr Vardhan's communique to states comes soon after his request to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to effect a hike in prices of tobacco products in this year's Budget. Citing a recent report which put the total economic cost attributable to all diseases caused by tobacco consumption at Rs. 1.04 lakh crore, Mr Vardhan stressed the need to discourage tobacco consumption for 'reducing avoidable public expenditure'. (Read: Health groups welcome the proposal of increasing tax on tobacco)
In his letter to Chief Ministers, the Health Minister has used the example of Rajasthan where VAT on tobacco products stands at 60 per cent. Quoting a report, Mr Vardhan said 80 per cent of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases are due to cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory problems and diabetes, for which tobacco consumption is a major reason. A few days ago, Mr Vardhan had written to Mr Jaitley, advocating for hike in prices of tobacco products. (Read: Can higher tobacco taxes curb consumption?)
In a letter written to Mr Jaitley, he had said the number of male smokers in the country has increased to 105 million from 83 million in the past one decade, and argued that their ill-effects on health force over 15 million people into poverty every year. In the letter, he has proposed 'a large but feasible tax hike in the 2014 Budget on cigarettes of Rs. 3.5 per stick. The tax would be applied to all lengths to prevent the industry (tobacco) from shifting production and marketing to lower length cigarettes, as has been the past practice.' (Read: 'Hike taxes on tobacco products to reduce intake')
What happen inside your body when you smoke?
Stressed out, bored or simply craving that nicotine fix smoking is usually a solution to all of these problems. But did you know that in order to beat that boredom you are slipping down the unending crevasse of death. How you ask? Here is what smoking does to your health and eventually causes cancer, right from when you light up to when you exhale.
Your first drag:
1. Whether you light your cigarette using a matchstick or a lighter, the first puff is the most damaging. The smoke emitted from the match and the cigarette form a strong cocktail that can leave the mucous lining in your nose damaged.
2. Apart from that the heat from the cigarette affects the skin on your face and most importantly around your nose and mouth. The heat causes your lips to darken, leads to wrinkles and the appearance of age spots. Another reason for darkening of a smokers lips is the fact that the tar in the cigarette tends to adhere to the lips, soon staining them.
3. Not to mention the constant pouting and sucking that one has to do in order to take a puff also leads to what is known as a smoker's pout. Where when you pout you will see the appearance of fine lines around the lips something that does not happen in non-smokers.
Read more about the 6 most common myths about smoking busted.
What the smoke does to the insides of your mouth:
4. When the smoke is inside your mouth, the tar starts to coat the enamel of your teeth, discolouring them.
5. The heat from the smoke also damages the cells in and around your mouth, and in some cases leading to a change in their DNA causing mutations. Once inside the mouth the tar and other chemicals affect all parts of your oral cavity.
6. The chemicals present in a cigarette are numerous and they form a coat your tongue, palate and the inside of your cheeks. It deadens your taste buds, hyperactivates your salivary glands and eventually blocks them, leading to a lack of saliva in your mouth. That is also one of the reasons smokers need a drink of water after a smoke. Read more about 25 things that happen inside your body when you smoke
With inputs from PTI
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