The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : State to strictly enforce ban on smoking

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 25, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

State to strictly enforce ban on smoking

Special Correspondent

Students will have to act as ambassadors: Health Secretary

CHENNAI: From October 2, the ban on smoking in public places will be implemented stringently in Tamil Nadu, Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj has said. Students will have to act as ambassadors, as they will be most effective in checking the smoking habit.

Participating in a function to launch the Tobacco Control Task Force in universities, colleges and schools in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Subburaj said the government would form rules to implement the Act.

While in the West, the number of smokers who had kicked the habit was growing, India and China had very few ex-smokers. Statistics showed that 40 per cent of all cancers in India were tobacco-related. Also 70 per cent of smokers would be in the age group of 30-69 years, he added. Many smokers were not aware that the habit led to sterility and male impotency.

The programme was organised jointly by the Tobacco Cessation Centre-Cancer Institute (WIA), State NSS Cell, State Tobacco Control Cell, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, World Health Organisation and the NSS unit of the University of Madras.

Pat for Anbumani

Launching the task force, Governor Surjit Singh Barnala appreciated the efforts of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to make India smoke-free. The law should be strictly enforced and punishment for violation should be made severe. He said that creation of awareness on the ill effects of tobacco use should be undertaken on a massive scale. He urged the heads of various religious institutions to involve themselves wholeheartedly in the anti-tobacco campaign.

Declaring educational institutions – schools and colleges – as tobacco-free institutions would motivate others to join in. “By establishing task forces and ensuring strict implementation of the law, we will be able to pave the way for forming a tobacco-free society,” Mr. Barnala added. He also applauded the initiatives taken by the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, State government and the TCC to create a tobacco-free Chennai by 2010.

Mr. Barnala distributed certificates to programme officers and co-ordinators who helped make their institution tobacco-free. Three Best Anti-Tobacco Activists were also chosen to receive their award from the Governor.

School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu said students would have to believe that tobacco was an enemy. The best place to start an anti-tobacco campaign would be school as statistics proved that children acquired the habit at about 13 years. Most students took to smoking due to peer pressure, a desire to be stylish and also as an act of rebellion.

V. Shanta, chairman, Cancer Institute, quoting a survey on 13-15 year olds in India, said tobacco use among children varied from State to State and was the lowest in the South.

She said that tobacco use in the family space and education institutions was a mutable factor and should be the focus of the anti-tobacco campaigners. This year’s theme for the No Tobacco Day was ‘Protect Youth from Tobacco,’ she said, and stressed that children and youth should be armed with knowledge that would keep them away from tobacco.

T.G. Sagar, dean, College of Oncological Sciences, Cancer Institute, said tobacco was the only legal consumer product that killed up to half of those who used it as intended by the manufacturers. A total of 600 educational institutions would be certified as tobacco-free, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu