CHENNAI: Lectures, walkathons and survey releases will happen over the weekend across the city for World No Tobacco Day (May 31). But messages echoing from everywhere are the same – TN, like every other state, should bring down the use of tobacco to reduce health and environmental hazards.
The key indicators of the fifth edition of the National Family Health Survey released by the Union health ministry recently showed that in Tamil Nadu tobacco use was higher among men compared to women. While 20.1% of men above 15 years used any kind of tobacco, it was 4.9% among women. Across genders, the use of tobacco was higher among the rural population. Among women, for instance, 7.3% in rural areas and 2.3% in urban areas used tobacco. In men, 23.3% of rural men used tobacco compared to 16.7% in urban areas.
Although the usage is lesser compared to the national average — where 8.9% of women and 38% of men use tobacco products — experts say the usage in TN is high enough to trigger early deaths and complications. Director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam said evidence from across the world and state’s own experience has shown tremendous benefits with tobacco use being cut down.
For instance, the drastic reduction in the use of chewable tobacco among women led to a drop in the incidence of oral cancer by more than 30% in less than 10 years, according to the Madras Metropolitan Cancer Registry.
However, the incidence shot up among youngsters as many were being lured into chewable tobacco.
Among male tobacco users, smokers formed the largest group. Nearly 13% of men smoked cigarettes and 3.8% smoked bidis. Besides causing heart attacks, strokes, cancer, respiratory disorders and other serious ailments, experts are focusing on the harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment. The impact, according to the World Health Organisation, is vast and adding unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already fragile ecosystems. “Tobacco kills over eight million people every year and destroys our environment, further harming human health, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste,” the WHO statement reads.
In TN, MACT India and The Union and Tobacco Monitor released Factsheet 2022, which estimated the waste generated from tobacco to be nearly 8,238 tonnes. The results of the yet-to-be peer-reviewed report said this waste includes 201.8 tonnes of plastic waste from cigarettes every year, 326.7 tonnes from bidis and nearly 2,000 tonnes from smokeless tobacco.
The study used the Global Audit Tobacco Survey-India (2016-17), which said there were 20% tobacco users in TN - including 6.3% cigarette smokers, 5.4% bidi smokers and 10.6% users on smokeless tobacco as its base for the cross-sectional survey.
“Gross weight and segregated weights of the plastic, paper, foil and filter content was taken from the procured samples and were correlated with the data from GATS survey to arrive at the final results,” said MACT founder S Cyril Alexander.
