Srinagar tops list with Rs 122 Cr, Anantnag 2nd with Rs 103 Cr, Baramulla 3rd with Rs 98 Cr
Rise in lung cancer in Valley a cause of huge tobacco sales
Mansoor Peer
Srinagar: Kashmir is spending a whopping Rs 600 crore on the purchase of tobacco products annually.
An official at the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir said during a year, people from nine districts of Kashmir spend Rs 595 crore on tobacco products.
Srinagar spends Rs 122 crore followed by Anantnag with Rs 103 crore, Baramulla Rs 98 crore, Kupwara Rs 84 crore, Pulwama Rs 55 crore, Kulgam Rs 41 crore, Bandipora Rs 37 crore, Ganderbal Rs 29 crore, and Shopian Rs 26 crore.
However, the figures of central Kashmir’s Budgam district are not available.
These are the figures based on a survey conducted earlier by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI).
Jammu Kashmir is among the states with a huge number of tobacco consumers due to poor enforcement of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA).
According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) of 2016-17, in J&K, there are 23.7 percent tobacco users and 20.8 percent smoke while 4.3 percent consume smokeless tobacco.
As per the Health officials, although the government has imposed blanket ban on e-cigarettes and loose cigarettes, the sale of loose cigarettes continues rampantly.
Dr Naheed Anjum Malik, Divisional Nodal Officer, National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) said by reducing the consumption they could reduce the economic burden.
“We are creating awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption. We are in a process of implementing the provisions under COPTA Act of 2003,” she said.
Dr Naheed said they had distributed a lot of IEC material in all the districts across the Valley and were in training the manpower against tobacco.
“Training of health, social workers, NGOs, school teachers, counsellors, ASHAs has been conducted in all the districts,” she said. “In Budgam we have covered 70 schools under the awareness programmes.”
As per the Health experts, almost 40 percent of TB deaths among men were associated with smoking saying the incidence of impotence is 85 percent higher among smokers.
According to officials, around 75 percent of cigarette sales in India were through loose cigarettes and every gazetted officer was authorized to challan the person found smoking at a public places.
Dr Mohammad Naseer, program coordinator of Union of Tobacco and Lung Diseases, an NGO working in collaboration with the NTCP, said tobacco sale was a big problem in J&K saying it had caused a rise in lung cancer.
“Illegal and loose cigarettes are being sold rampantly,” he said. “There should be monitoring to prevent people from second-hand smoking.”
The Health department had launched a “yellow line campaign” within a radius of 100 meters from any educational institution to ban the sale of tobacco products.
He said although the government imposed blanket ban on e-cigarettes and loose cigarettes, the sale of loose cigarettes continues rampantly.
Naseer said tobacco industry was the least remunerative and an exploitative industry which pushes people to further poverty.
“Health impact of tobacco is underestimated and its control too is underestimated and remains ignored,” he said. “A mechanism has to be developed in a sustained way.”
Previously, the GATS survey revealed that with every fourth person in Jammu Kashmir is a smoker.
According to the survey, 19.4 percent people of J&K smoke, 1.4 percent smoke as well as consume smokeless tobacco, 2.9 percent only consume smokeless tobacco while the remaining 76.3 percent are non-smokers.
The survey conducted by Mumbai-based International Institute of Population Science (IIPS) in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said cigarette, hukkah and bidi were the most commonly used tobacco products in J&K.
It reveals that among the adults, a total of 10.4 percent smoke cigarette, 6.3 percent smoke from the hukkah and 6.2 percent smoke bidi.
The survey shows that the mean age at initiation of tobacco use had increased from 17.2 years in GATS-1 to 18.0 years in GATS-2.
“A total of 50.1 percent of smokers are advised by a healthcare provider to quit smoking and 38.8 percent of smokeless tobacco users were advised by a health work providers to quit smokeless tobacco use,” it said.
The survey said 57.5 percent of all adults who worked indoors were exposed to second-hand smoke at their workplaces while 35.3 percent of all adults were exposed to second-hand smoke at any public place.
The survey revealed that 55.4 percent of cigarette smokers and 25.4 percent of bidi smokers thought of quitting smoking because of warning label on the pack, while 26.2 percent of smokeless tobacco users thought of quitting smokeless tobacco use due to the warning label.
“A total of 35.2 percent of men, 5.1 percent of women and 20.8 percent of all adults currently smoke tobacco, while as 6.8 percent of men, 1.5 percent of women and 43.3 percent of all adults either smoke tobacco or use smokeless tobacco,” the survey mentions.
It also notes that 39.7 percent of men, 6.2 percent of women and 23.7 percent of all adults either smoke tobacco or use smokeless tobacco.
The survey reveals that tobacco use has come down by 2.9 percent in the last seven years in the State.
The prevalence of any tobacco use has decreased significantly by 2.9 percent from 26.6 percent in GATS-2 (conducted during 2009-10) to 23.7 percent in GATS-2 held in 2016-17.
“From GATS-1 to GATS-2, the prevalence of smoking has decreased by 1.1 percent, however, the decrease is not significant,” the survey reveals.
Copyright of Rising Kashmir
