Worried over increased use of tobacco among adolescents, Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday called for reversing the trend by catching them young and indoctrinating their minds about the health hazards.
“Tobacco use is detrimental to all aspects of life, and grips users in the most productive years. We must reverse this tide. We must, for this purpose, target our young children, catch them young, and indoctrinate their minds against the harms of tobacco use,” said Nadda.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the 7th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP7) to World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at Greater Noida. Nadda said there are nearly 275 million current users in the country and close to one million lives are lost every year due to tobacco use, either directly or indirectly.
He added that the economic cost to India or the healthcare cost to treat tobacco-related diseases is a whopping US$ 22 billion and the target of achieving relative reduction of tobacco use by 30 per cent is no longer a choice but a necessity.
“The challenges faced by India in the realm of tobacco control are formidable, both in their number and in their complexity. However, despite our vast complexity, substantial investments for implementation of WHO FCTC are slowly improving the situation,” he said at the conference where more than 1,500 delegates from all over the world are taking part.