After earning the tag of “smoke and tobacco free” State, Punjab is going a step further by expanding the ambit of de-addiction centres to cover the tobacco addicts. 

The State Health and Family Welfare Department has decided to expand the ambit of its de-addiction centres so as to cover the tobacco addicts “to further reduce the prevalence of tobacco or nicotine use in Punjab”.

Announcing this, State Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Vini Mahajan said that this will reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and tuberculosis by pledging not to use tobacco or nicotine. 

Mahajan said that the state government has been making serious efforts in the past few years to tackle the problem of tobacco use.

“In its endeavor to save the youth and children from its addiction, the government has been strictly implementing various laws and provisions related to tobacco or nicotine control like Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products or ban on chewable tobacco under Food Safety Act or ban on E-Cigarettes under Drugs and Cosmetics Act etc,” she said adding that this was resulting in an increased demand for tobacco cessation services. At present, Punjab has the lowest prevalence of tobacco use in country according to the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) data (2015-16) conducted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The tobacco use among men in Punjab state declined from 33.8 (NFHS-3) to 19.2 percent (NFHS-4) and in women from 0.8 to 0.1 percent during last 10 years.

Also 24.4 percent men planned to quit tobacco in last one year. “This is significant considering the fact that there are 2200 deaths attributed to tobacco use and 5500 children or youth who start using tobacco daily in India,” she said.