Smoking Them Out

Source from:  Tehelka 10/20/2010

The government on Tuesday said that while it recognised that tobacco farmers' incomes had to be protected, the way ahead was finding them new ways to earn money. "We cannot indefinitely tolerate a public health hazard in the name of protecting livelihoods," argued Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in Delhi while releasing a report on tobacco usage in India. At the same time, the minister underscored the need for inter-sectoral coordination for comprehensive tobacco-control strategies, and said his ministry was collaborating with the Department of Agriculture on a project on alternative crops in coordination with the ministries of human resource development, information and broadcasting, rural development and labour. "We must work towards moving farmers out of the tobacco industry," Azad said. The report, Global Adult Tobacco Survey- India 2010, prepared by the ministry and the Mumbai-based International Institute for Population Sciences, dwells on various aspects like exposure to passive smoking, cessation, economics of tobacco, exposure to media messages on tobacco use, and impact on health. India is the second largest consumer of tobacco products and third largest producer of tobacco in the world, it said, adding that of the nearly 5.5 million deaths that occur globally due to tobacco consumption every year, India accounts for almost 1 million. The report also listed a set of recommendations to ensure tighter control of tobacco usage control across the country, including strengthening the implementation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. The survey was carried out in all the 28 states as well as the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry, and is based on a sample size of 72,000 households. Enditem