Tobacco tightens grip on Gujarat

This World No Tobacco Day brings alarming news that has doctors in the state considerably worried, especially about women. While consuming beedis and gutkha has been synonymous with poor women labourers for decades, the latest trends in tobacco consumption show that an increasing number of affluent and upper-class women are also taking up the habit and bringing cases of tobacco-induced cancer to unprecedented levels.

Doctors say that tobacco-related cancers, in addition to affecting the tongue, cheek, jaw and throat, are playing havoc with the lungs, intestines, kidneys, pancreas and wind and food pipe as well.

Dr Shilin Shukla, deputy director of the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) says, “Poor women labourers were already known to consume beedis and tobacco paste. But now, female working professionals from much higher social strata are also taking to it, albeit in the form of cigarettes. The use of tobacco and gutkha has almost doubled.”

He adds that the consequent rapid rise in tobacco-related cancers in women is a major cause for concern.

According to a recent GCRI survey, the number of tobacco-related cases in Gujarat has doubled in the age group of 15 years and below, and a jump of 1.5 times has been noted in such cases in the 25 to 40 age group.

Dr Parimal Jivarajani, associate professor for community oncology, GCRI, says, “There is a 20 per cent overall jump in the number of tobacco-related cancer cases in women in Gujarat, which is frightening.”

Tobacco addiction seems to have spared none, with the entire gamut of women, ranging from the well-to-do to the most poverty-stricken, suffering from it at various levels.

According to the latest data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 85 per cent of the world’s tobacco users, with the latter forming about 40 per cent of the world’s population, are in developing countries, and the number is increasing by 1.5 times annually.

On the other hand, a drastic fall of 15 per cent has been noticed in
tobacco consumption in developed countries.

Recent data by the Tobacco Atlas ranks India as having the third-largest number of women smokers in the world, says
Dr Bharat Parikh, professor of oncology at GCRI.
Dr Narendra Raval, president of the Gujarat State Chest Physicians Association, said that there is an urgent need for a sustained drive to educate women on tobacco consumption, which also causes chronic lung diseases, stomach ulcers, infertility, premature menopause and vision defects.