Every one of us has a right to breathe in fresh air,
but unfortunately, times are such that smoking, today has become more of a
fashion than an addiction. Even though it kills millions of people everywhere,
but this prestigious habit is rising among men and women. Smoke seems
everywhere and as a result of which, Tobacco is becoming a universal hazard as
well as an epidemic.
According to WHO, use of tobacco kills 6 million
people each year, and this could reach to 8 million by 2030 if the global
epidemic is left unchecked.
A
silent killer
Continuous use of tobacco affects the body both internally and externally. Some of the effects of occur after one has started smoking while others occur in the long-term life of the smoker. Amongst young people who engage in smoking at an early age it leads to addiction. As a result of the same, most young people continue to use tobacco that eventually lowers the functioning of lung and its growth rate. In adults, it causes heart disease such as heart attack and stroke.
Scientists suggest that someone who smokes a
pack of cigarettes each day lives less than 7 years of his life expectancy and
to the early smokers it increase the risk of lung cancer infection.
The Economic and Health Benefits of
Tobacco Taxation, produced by the Tobacco Free Initiative of the
World Health Organization and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control, highlights the importance of tobacco control in the
post-2015 development agenda, and the potential for higher taxes on tobacco
products to act as a large funding source for governments.
India’s
Scenario
In India, The National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC)
at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is responsible for overall
policy formulation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the
different activities envisaged under the National Tobacco Control Programme
(NTCP)
India became party to the WHO Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control in 2005. Despite having signed up a global treaty, we are
still failing to control and implement numerous anti-tobacco laws.
According to a report by International Tobacco
Control Project (ITCP), India currently has more than 250 million tobacco
users.
The way forward
- Existing laws and regulations needs to be
strengthened.
- Raise taxes on all tobacco products to increase
prices and generate revenue for tobacco control.
- Spend the additional revenue on social sector
initiatives benefiting the poor and on strengthening tobacco control
programmes.
- Mobilize the people through mass education and
community empowerment.
- Need to impose a strict ban on oral tobacco products such as gutka.
An unprecedented
increase in the smoking users worldwide needs an urgent attention. Therefore,
it is high time that every government takes a step forward to implement strict
laws in order to ban smoking.
