Special Correspondent

More minors smoking, chewing tobacco in State

Teenagers starting tobacco use at a younger age; overall usage has dipped, reveals Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2

December 09, 2017 12:59 am | Updated 02:16 pm IST - Mumbai

The number of people smoking and chewing tobacco in the State has decreased by nearly five percentage points since 2009, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2.

The report, released on Friday at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Parel, showed that the prevalence of tobacco has come down from 31.4% in GATS1 (2009-10) to 26.6 % in GATS2.

But the decline is nothing to be happy about say experts, as a more worrisome trend has emerged. Tobacco use in the 15-17 age group has nearly doubled from 2.9% to 5.5%, and the age of initiation has fallen further from 18.5 years to 17.4 years.

Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon from TMH and a vocal anti-tobacco activist, said, “If we consider the State’s progress broadly, the it has definitely done well. But our youth is starting tobacco use much earlier, which makes it an even more serious issue. There is an increase in the number of women smokers as well.”

Need to be proactive

He said the country has seen an overall 50% decrease in tobacco use in the 15-17 age group. The increase in Maharashtra is worrying, especially because tobacco products are not supposed to be sold near educational institutions. “The police, who have to ensure that tobacco is not sold near schools and colleges, are not proactive as they look at this task as moral policing,” said Dr. Chaturvedi.

The first survey was released in 2009-10. For GATS2, 1,517 men and 1,624 women were interviewed between November and December 2016.

The report also revealed that exposure of adults to second-hand smoke at home has dipped from 36.6% in 2009-10 to 19.9% in 2016-17. The figure is also lower at the workplace, coming down from 23.8% to 20.1%.

Khaini and gutkha remained the most commonly used forms of tobacco, with a prevalence of 15.5% and 8.6% respectively. Cigarette smoking stood at 1.9%. Despite a gutkha ban, its use has increased from 8.3% to 8.6%.

Measures undertaken

State Health Minister Deepak Sawant, who was present at the release of the report, said a lot is being done on the ground to spread awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco. “The State has also undertaken an oral cancer screening drive, through which we will reach out to at least one crore people this month,” said Mr. Sawant.

He said that in the first week of the drive, as many as 22 lakh people have already been screened.

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