World No Tobacco Day: Know What Experts Have To Say

Bhubaneswar:  The World No Tobacco Day’ (WNTD) was observed across the globe on Sunday, providing an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco.

According to estimates, tobacco killed 10 crore people in the 20th century. Annually 80 lakh people die of tobacco-related illnesses and of these 10 lakh deaths occur due to second-hand smoke. “Tobacco kills one person every 4 seconds. In India 42 % of men, 14 % of women, and 28 % (27 crore) of all adults currently use tobacco (smoked and/or smokeless tobacco), a researcher said.

This annual campaign also serves as a call for action, advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption and engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors in the fight for tobacco control.

Odisha Bytes spoke to some teenagers and doctors to know their responses on World No Tobacco Day:

Dr. Kunal Jha, Associate Professor of Department of Public Health Dentistry of Kalinga Institute Of Medical Sciences, said, “We are trying to create a tobacco-free society on this World No Tobacco Day. We always prefer the educational approach through which we are able to educate the people to create awareness. As we are dentists so focus not only on lungs cancer, but also on oral cancer also, Odisha is among the leading tobacco-consuming states in India and lungs and oral cases are also high. In the state,  smokeless forms of tobacco are mainly used. We conducted webinar on ‘tobacco counseling  in COVID times’ today.”

Dr Sourav Kumar Mishra, Associate Professor of Department of Medical Oncology, IMS & SUM Hospital, said, “Globally 18 lakh deaths are caused by lung cancer annually. Smoking is the most common preventable cause of lung cancer. Smokers are 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer in their lifetime, compared with non-smokers. Annually 68,000 new cases of lung cancers are diagnosed in India.”