Govt set to ban gutka, tobacco in a month

When told about the Central plan, Delhi Health Minister A.K. Walia said the state government would gladly implement the ban as it had been waiting all along for the Centre to take the initiative.

“Last year, we had discussed the possibility of a ban here but gave up as most of the non-smoking tobacco products came from neighbouring states. Unless there is a ban there too, it would be difficult to enforce a ban in Delhi alone,” he said.

In 1996, the National Sample Survey Organisation estimated that 184 million persons (150 million men and 34 million women) consumed tobacco in India. And the same year, while there were 28,560 cases of lung cancer attributed to pollution and smoking, there were 46,660 cases of oral cancer, 8,890 cases of oropharynx cancer, 22,360 hypopharynx cancer, 17,690 larynx cancer and 30,160 cases of oesophageal cancer, all of which are attributed by doctors to use of non-smoking tobacco products like gutka, pan masala and khaini.

Dr V.K. Vijayan, director of the Sardar Patel Chest Institute here, said most of these oral cancer cases were owing to use of gutka, pan masala and khaini and such cases were not prevalent in the West.

According to figures available with the National Cancer Registry, lung cancer remains on top on the national scene, but is followed closely by mouth cancer as shown by cases recorded in the cancer registries of Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Bhopal and Barshi.

As per Delhi Cancer Registry figures for 1995, 68.9 per 1,00,000 men were suffering from cancer in 1995. Of these, 7.3 per 100,000 had lung cancer, 4.5 had cancer of the larynx, and 3.6 had cancer of the tongue.

In the cancer out-patient department of the Safdarjung Hospital here which received 2,500 cases last year, 25 per cent of new patients have head and neck cancers which are caused by use of tobacco, Dr K.T. Bhowmick, head of the department of radiotherapy there, says.

He points out that lung, head and mouth cancers are more common in the poorer sections, which points at their lack of immunity to carcinogens. But while lung cancer is difficult to detect early and the patient often dies months after detection, oral cancers can be prevented by foregoing tobacco and detected early through regular check-ups.