All the 350 institutions affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University will become tobacco-free campuses, according to the varsity Vice-Chancellor Mayil Vahanan Natarajan.
Orientation programme
Speaking at an orientation programme held at Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar, for principals/deans of medical colleges and deemed universities, Dr. Mayil Vahanan said the declaration would be made soon, and implemented immediately.
Awareness programmes would be held for the staff and students, and after that, anyone — staff or student — found to be using tobacco products could be suspended. There are about 55,000 students and 10,000 members of teaching staff in all the institutions attached to the university, he said.
Long-term effects
The long-term effects of tobacco use would be communicated to the faculty and students through orientation sessions, he added.
As peer pressure was a huge factor that influenced the youth, taking this message to the entire student community would have the effect of primary prevention.
V. Shanta, chairperson, Cancer Institute (WIA), said cancer and tobacco were inseparable. While the ideal scenario would be to completely eliminate tobacco use, reducing the number of users, too, would have a large beneficial effect.
“Catch them young”
Since prevention is better than cure, it is best to catch them young, she said.
Two factors are very important to determining whether a child picks up smoking or not — the environment at home and the school scenario. It is key to spreading the anti-tobacco message at both places, Dr. Shanta added.
While the use of chewable tobacco products was coming down, studies have shown that educating users on the ill-effects of tobacco gives them the power to say no to the habit. T.S. Sagar, medical director of the Institute, said there were about 200 million active tobacco users today, and 2,500 persons die of tobacco-related causes every day.
India — the capital of head and neck cancers — has about 20 per cent of tobacco-users smoking cigarettes. About 40 per cent used bidis and yet another 40 per cent used smokeless forms. Two-thirds of them start at a very young age.
E. Vidhubala, Tobacco Cessation Centre, at the Institute, said a health policy to handle tobacco-related conditions must be evolved and put in place.
