India: Noida Centre is WHO Hub on Smokeless Tobacco Use

Source from:  The Times of India 01/07/2016

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has deemed city-based Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO) a knowledge hub in India for smokeless tobacco use. This is the seventh WHO FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) knowledge hub in the world.

The other six hubs are in Australia, Finland, Lebanon, Korea, South Africa and Uruguay. All of these centres work on different areas of tobacco control like trade and tobacco litigation, surveillance, policy monitoring, illicit trade in tobacco products.

ICPO director Ravi Mehrotra said the knowledge centre will provide information on tobacco control.

"This will be developed as a vital platform for information sharing. We will develop and implement a work plan for intervention. The knowledge hub will also report and evaluate existing government plans on use of tobacco products," he said. WHO will fund the hub for two years, after which the government will take over
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The WHO FCTC was developed in response to the globalisation of the tobacco epidemic. The rising number of smokeless tobacco users in India led to the establishment of a knowledge hub.

A report by the US-based National Cancer Institute, entitled Smokeless Tobacco and Public Health, A Global Perspective (2014), prepared by 32 experts from around the world, had revealed at least 80% of smokeless tobacco users globally live in India and Bangladesh.

The Noida based WHO FTCT knowledge hub will work on the education, communication, training for public awareness on tobacco control issues. Enditem