India: Most Smokers of Mumbai Light up 7-10 Times Per Day

Source from:  Times of India  05/31/2013

Mumbai has the heaviest smokers - most lighting up seven to 10 times a day - while one cigarette seems to be enough for a majority of smokers in Delhi, a survey across these two cities and Kolkata and Bangalore has found.

Barely half of Mumbai's smokers are thinking about quitting, compared to the 71% in Bangalore. Across the country, one of every two smokers is playing with the idea of giving up.

Interestingly, up to 71% of Mumbai's smokers believe that if they smoke within limits, it will not affect their health. In comparison, 69% smokers in Delhi and 35% of those in Bangalore and Kolkata are under a similar illusion.

The average cigarette consumption in the country is about five a day, but one-third of those addicted to nicotine seems to be able to get by with two to three a day.

But that is hardly a relief. "For each smoker, there are numerous passive smokers and if Mumbaikars smoke more, automatically the number of people being exposed to passive smoking will multiply. It is established by research all over world that people die prematurely because of smoking and second-hand smokers too are at risk," said Dr PC Gupta, head of Healis - Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health.
 "We found that the average age of taking to smoking was 18, which was a trend in all the four metros. However, in the age group of 16-20 years, Mumbai recorded 71% respondents while Delhi was higher with a maximum of 72%. Kolkata and Bangalore followed at 66% and 60%, respectively," said Shankar Nath, head of the marketing department of ICICI Lombard, a general insurance company that conducted the survey.

Since the survey was conducted in May, the survey team felt it could have affected the number of cigarettes a person smokes. "We know for a fact that people smoke less in the hot weather. So there is a likely chance that the people surveyed may have admitted to fewer lights a day," added Nath. In all, 914 smokers were interviewed.

According to experts, Mumbai got some of the best results after the ban on smoking in public places was implemented in October 2008. "The BMC has done a good job," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck onco-surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital.

"Restaurants and hotels do not allow smoking on premises for fear of license cancellation. Even offices across the city have marked designated smoking areas to prevent other employees from passive smoking. The same, however, cannot be said about the other cities," he said.

Devika Chadha, programme director of Salaam Bombay Foundation, said the city has also fared better when it comes to the gutka and pan masala ban, which was implemented last year. "The ban on smoking in public places was better initially. But as time passed, it has somewhat slackened. What we need is a re-instigation of the crackdown on smokers in the public domain." Enditem