- Title: INDIA: India "gutka" chewing tobacco habit a tough nut to crack.
- Date: 11th September 2012
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR SHEH RAWAT, SENIOR CONSULTANT RADIATION ONCOLOGY AT RAJIV GANDHI CANCER INSTITUTE, SAYING: "If we do not impose the ban than the incident of cancer is going to increase. Our coming generation, our own children may fall into this trap. So, it is not only government's responsibility, it is also our own responsibility to look into it." TEJU SINGH, A PATIENT SUFFERING FROM ORAL CANCER DEVELOPED FROM CHEWING TOBACCO, WALKING IN TO CONSULT DOCTOR SHEH RAWAT DOCTOR EXAMINING THE FACE AND MOUTH OF TEJU SINGH
- Embargoed: 26th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: India
- Country: India
- Topics: Health,Industry
- Reuters ID: LVA1IC8X9WEUAIBDKR8MWX8LPLMB
- Story Text: Indian states of Delhi and Gujarat join10 other states to ban a popular form of chewing tobacco.
Two more Indian states have joined the fast growing list of states that have banned a popular form of chewing tobacco in a major policy shift that may save millions of lives and strike a blow at the global tobacco industry, already reeling from new anti-smoking laws around the world.
But an estimated 65 million Indians use "gutka" - a heady form of chewing tobacco made of crushed betel nut also known as areca nut, nicotine and laced with thousands of chemicals - and furious manufacturers are fighting to have the bans overturned.
On Tuesday (September 11) capital New Delhi and the western state of Gujarat joined the league of 10 states that have banned the selling, production, distribution and stocking of the chewing tobacco, raising stakes in a fight against the increasing number of mouth and oral cancer cases.
"Basically the ban would be on manufacturing and sale and our PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration) department will keep checks on it and if it is sold anywhere then samples would be taken, they would be tested and then a case in the court would be registered against the defaulters," said Ashok Kumar Walia, the Delhi Health Minister.
Some of the chewing tobacco manufacturing companies are dragging states to courts, complaining that the billion-dollar industry should be regulated as tobacco and not as food and that the bans threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and street vendors scattered from Bangalore to New Delhi.
More Indians, including children, chew gutka than smoke, making the trend of outlawing the cheap, colourful packets a more effective health policy in the world's second most populous nation than anti-smoking laws like Australia's ban on cigarette pack logos.
Rajender Kumar, a self-confessed gutka addict said he would continue to find his supplies, irrespective of the ban.
"I have a sort of an attachment with it. If I don't eat gutka (chewing tobacco) then I feel as if my mouth is empty, I feel I am fast asleep. But when I eat gutka, I get a feeling that my whole body gets excited, I feel very excited after eating it," Kumar said.
Last week, Punjab became the tenth of 28 states to ban the sale of gutka after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India reclassified it as a foodstuff, prohibiting the use of tobacco and nicotine as "ingredients in any food product".
New Delhi and Gujarat states have now followed suite.
Gutka making is controlled by family-run Indian firms, with no international tobacco companies in the business. Several other forms of chewing tobacco considered less harmful have not been reclassified as foodstuffs and are not banned.
More than 550 million people live in the 12 states which have enforced the bans.
But those whose livelihoods depend on the trade in chewing tobacco are worried.
"This is not right, if they ban the sale of gutka then where will we go? We have no other means of employment, what will do?" said Ramu, a tobacco seller in New Delhi.
Gutka is popular with the young and old alike, many of whom are blase about the nation's leading cause of oral cancer. Some of the chemicals in some brands of gutka are also used in tile cleaners and battery acids.
Asia's third-largest economy battles almost 80,000 new cases of oral cancer yearly. The treatment of tobacco-related diseases cost more than $5 billion in 2002-2003, according to the most recent data available cited in a health ministry and WHO report.
That compares to about $1.4 billion that the government earns in excise revenue from tobacco.
Doctor Sheh Rawat, senior consultant radiation oncology at New Delhi's Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Hospital, said there should be a blanket ban across India on the sale of tobacco products to protect the future generations.
"If we do not impose the ban than the incident of cancer is going to increase. Our coming generation, our own children may fall into this trap. So, it is not only government's responsibility, it is also our own responsibility to look into it," Rawat said.
Tobacco has been chewed in India for centuries, dating back to the Mughal era when nawabs had a concoction known as "paan" - a betel leaf wrapped around a mixture of areca nut, pastes, spices and tobacco - to refresh their palates and aid digestion.
Gutka and paan masala are products of recent decades, available as dry, portable and readymade variants of the traditional paan, to cater for a fast-paced, modern life.
The poor state of Madhya Pradesh was the first to ban the product, and several others hopped on the bandwagon.
Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala went a step further by banning all smokeless forms of tobacco, including "paan masala", usually sold as a mouth freshener.
But it remains to be seen how well the bans are enforced. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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