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Chennai
FOR BETTER HEALTH: Director of Public Health S. Elango (right), presenting the logo of the SMS promotional messages on tobacco control to Airtel General Manager (Operations) Ramananda on Wednesday. 
Chennai: The Directorate of Public Health has measured air nicotine levels in several public places, including schools and government buildings, to make a case for the risks faced by passive smokers in the city. Passive smokers or second-hand smokers may not be tobacco-users but are still at risk, Director of Public Health S. Elango said. Between June 14 and June 25 this year, air nicotine monitoring was conducted in hospitals, schools, government offices, restaurants and entertainment venues. Within each building, the small monitors were inconspicuously placed in areas that people occupied frequently. The monitors were sent to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which had provided the equipment, to find out the results. Study findingsAccording to the findings of the study, all monitors in schools and restaurants recorded detectable levels of air nicotine. In government buildings, hospitals and entertainment venues, the majority of the monitors showed levels above the detection limit. Dr. Elango said the highest median level of air nicotine was found in restaurants (see table). Median air nicotine levels in government buildings, hospitals and schools are higher than a similar study conducted in Brazil (Rio de Janiero), Peru (Lima) and Costa Rica (San Jose). Prasanna Kannan, senior State consultant, Tobacco Free Initiative, said that intensive awareness and training programmes were required to reach the goal of making Chennai a smoke-free city. SMS campaignThe Directorate of Public Health and communications service provider Airtel have come together to launch a campaign where messages against tobacco use would be sent to all Airtel uses in the form of SMS. The campaign was launched on Wednesday. Messages such as ‘There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke and ‘Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide’ would be sent as messages. In October, a total of 3,645 persons fined for smoking in public places and a fine amount of Rs. 4.6 lakh was collected. In November, 2,065 persons were fined for smoking in public places and a fine amount of Rs. 2.58 lakh was collected.
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