In Gujarat, 60% males are tobacco addicts

In Gujarat, 60% males and 8.4% females are addicted to tobacco in one way or another. This shocking information was been revealed by the state health minister Jaynarayan Vyas, while launching the 'Smoking Free Gujarat, Golden Gujarat' campaign which aims to create awareness in the state about the ills of chewing and smoking tobacco.Vyas told the media:”Against the national average of 57% males, Gujarat has 60% of tobacco consuming males while against 11.2% national tobacco consuming women, Gujarat has 8.4%. “According to one survey done on students of 8 to 10 classes, 29.3% boys and 4.3% girls are taking one or another kind of tobacco. Non-smoking use of tobacco is also very high in the state. It has increased by 2.5 times. Earlier, the prevalence of cancer due to tobacco in the 20 to 30 age group, was almost zero. Now it is 5.5%. Prevalence of cancer in passive smokers is also going up.''Vyas said that, “many argue that non-smoking and non-users of tobacco also get cancer, but I would like to present these facts -- that out of the total male cancer patients, 56% are tobacco users while in women it is only 17.41%.  Which itself shows tobacco's deadly effects.” The awareness programme will be functional in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts.