A 'Pledge for life' campaign to save the children from tobacco addiction was organised on Monday as a part of ‘Tobacco Free Haryana' campaign in a city.
School children through this campaign were informed about the ill-effects of tobacco. A patient who became cancer victim due to consumption of tobacco shared his suffering in the program.
Voice of Tobacco Victims (VOTV) State patron and cancer expert from Manipal Hospital, Dr Vedant Kabra said children can be saved from this addiction with prevention strategies. J 1, 04,500 crore is spent annually in India to treat diseases caused by tobacco. Speaking about ill-effects, he said tobacco impacts every organ of a human body. Tobacco and smoking cause physical damages along with also affect the environment and land advejely. No other crop or plants can be grown on the land where tobacco farming is done.
Sambandh Health Foundation (SHF) trustee SanJ ay Seth on Monday explained in detail about 'EMPOWER' and Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products (COTPA) Act 2003. He said if it is to effectively abide by the J uvenile J ustice Act and COTPA then the number of tobacco usej can be reduced.
"If the District Administration along with Police and Education department gets rigid enforcement of the COTPA and J J Act then control on sale and consumption of tobacco is possible," he said.
Haryana has 47 lakh tobacco usej, 28000 die every year. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2016-17, in Haryana state 23.6% of the population that is around 46.84 lakh people (aged 15+)consume tobacco in some form. Of these 39 lakh people (19.7%) smoke. In Haryana state, 15.5% people smoke Bidi, 7.6% smoke hookah and 2.6% smoke cigarette and tobacco usej at the age of 15 to 17 yeaj have increased by 4%. Smoking also advejely affects the non-smokej. The subJ ect that has to be seriously considered is that of these 10% people are those who do not smoke, but being in contact with smokej, they are get affected and die.
Ashima Sarin, Director, VOTV, said every year around 13.5 lakh people die due to tobacco-related diseases in India; 26.7 crore people in our country consume tobacco, which is really a matter of concern. She expressed her concern that every day around 5500 children start consuming tobacco in some form, whereas only 3% are able to quit.
Every year, an estimated 28,000 people die in Haryana state due to various tobacco-related diseases including cancer caused by consuming tobacco. Around 116 children start consuming tobacco daily. In India 13.50 lakh people die in the world because of cancer caused due to consuming tobacco, whereas, in the world, 6 million people die because of this disease.