The Delhi Government is mulling to impose a complete ban on chewing tobacco in the national Capital. The city administration is concerned over the rising incidents of cancer. Tobacco is the major factor in triggering this highly-dangerous disease. The ban on smokeless products including flavoured chewing tobacco — ‘Gutka’ or ‘Zarda’, ‘Pan Masala’ and ‘Khaini’ will reportedly come into force once the formal notification is issued by the Delhi Government.
It may be noted that about a dozen other States — including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Maharasthra — have already imposed the ban on the sale of chewing tobacco. The ban in the national Capital will soon come into the force, said the sources.
The city administration’s health and family welfare department will soon come out with a notification to ban the sale, purchase, manufacture, transportation, storage and display of chewable forms of tobacco. The administration is yet to take a call on the quantum of punishment which should be awarded to the violators.
Earlier, the administration had decided to award seven-year imprisonment and Rs1 lakh fine on the violators. Sources said that the prevention of the food department would be authorised to collect samples and register cases against the traders and manufacturers violating the ban.
The ban, however, will only be on the chewing tobacco, not cigarettes and bidis. The chewing tobacco accounts for over half of all tobacco use in India. It also causes oral cancer, the most common form of disease in India as also the most preventable. A study conducted by the Global Adult Tobacco two years ago revealed that 10.5 per cent adults — 16.7 per cent men and 2.8 per cent women — in Delhi chew tobacco products.
A report by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare says that each pack of tobacco products like ‘gutka’ and ‘khaini’ contain at least 3,095 different chemicals. About 28 of them are well proven carcinogens — known to cause cancer of food pipe, throat, pancreas, stomach, kidney and lungs.