I had worked only 3 months in tobacco project called “Association Against Tobacco Menace” (AATOM ) in Hubli. In this 3 month I came to know more about the tobacco ill effect on Human beings. I would like to share my little knowledge about tobacco with all. Tobacco eating is very common in India because most of the people don’t aware about the ill effect of the tobacco. If they knew also they are facing problem to quit that habit because of its addictive capacity.
We have been taught in school that tobacco is cash crop and many of us believe it. It is worth to finding the truth of the matter. Tobacco is grown in over 125 countries. Tobacco pant is a native of Mexico, Central and South America. There are bout sixty-five known variety of tobacco of which only two varieties are extensively cultivated.
Bidi, cigarate, Hukka, gutkha, snuff etc are different varieties of the tobacco. In India Bidi was first manufactured in Bihar. Later it spread to the other parts. Fist cigarette machine factory was set up in Havana, Cuba in 1853. Later cigarette spread to England and America. After the First World War cigarette smoking increased rapidly in the country. India ranks third in the world in tobacco production. Cigarette smoking has become the popular form of tobacco used internationally. In India Cigarette smoking accounts for about 16% and chewing tobacco for 30%. The remaining percentage of people consumes the other forms like bidis, moist snuff, dry snuff etc.
There are over 260 million tobacco users in the country today. Each day 68,000 to 82,000 adolescents from low and middle income countries enter the pool of tobacco users every day against 14,000 to 15,000 in high income countries. Every ten seconds, another dies as a result of tobacco use. This translates to nearly 10,000 deaths every day and 5 million deaths annually (WHO) .About half of all smokers who are killed by tobacco die in middle age. On an average, these smokers who die in middle age lose about 20-25 years of life expectancy.
While the net profit of tobacco per annum is estimated as 24,000 crore, the cost of training tobacco related disease is estimated as 27,700 crore in India. Over two million children below fourteen years of age are engaged as laborers in the highly hazardous tobacco industry, most them as bonded laborers. Curing tobacco consumes an estimated 200,000 hectares of woodland each year in India. By the governments own estimates in Karnataka, 1,20,000 tonnes of wood is used just for curing.
Tobacco is a major risk factor for about 25 diseases. Smoking shortens life span. It is expected that tobacco users will lose, on an average, 22 years of normal life expectancy. The average India bidi contains 330 mg of tobacco while the average cigarette has 1 g of tobacco but the contents of nicotine may be higher in the bidi.
30% of all cancers can be attributed to tobacco. Smoking is a known cause of death from cancers of lung, oral cavity, larynx, oesophagus, stomach, kidney, bladder, and pancreas. Tobacco contains more than 4000 chemicals. Yet is only one part Nicotine, which is responsible for the addictive role of tobacco.
Tobacco is addictive but possible to quite so we all have to decide to quite. It will save our health and environment.
