2.9% women smoke in Kovai: Survey

 

About 2.9 per cent of women from among the 24,045 persons screened in Coimbatore, were found to be smokers, according to a survey by the Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology. The shocking finding is that most of them are college students. 

 

Worse still, the survey reveals that about 9.6 per cent of the smokers were minors, mostly boys aged between 15 and 17. About 18.4 per cent of women chew tobacco while 15.8 per cent minors use smokeless tobacco every day.

 

The director of Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology (SRIOR), Dr P. Guhan, told DC that for the girls, smoking tobacco is more of a fashion statement. Pub culture is fast growing in Coimbatore. The girls get into the habit just to prove that they are equal to men. And in the next 10 to 15 years they get addicted and it gets very hard to kick the habit. 

 

In most cases, be it boys or girls, the habit starts during teenage, at an age when they do not realise the long-term consequences. And by the time they do, it gets too late. In due course, the smoking habit leads to clogged and shrunk arteries and almost 50 per cent of the youngsters who suffer sudden heart attack have a history of smoking. 

 

The survey in the rural areas of Coimbatore and Tirupur has revealed that about five in 10 adults are passive smokers, exposed to second-hand smoke at home and 29 per cent at public places (mainly in public transport and restaurants). About two in three adults noticed advertisement or promotion of tobacco products. And only three in five current tobacco users (61.1 per cent) noticed the health warning on tobacco packages and one in three current tobacco users (31.5 per cent) thought of quitting smoking because of the warning label. 

 

There are several cases of infertility among women that is caused by smoking. Smoking is also increasingly seen as the reason for the quality of semen coming down among men. Of the 11 lakh cancer deaths that happen globally nearly 60 per cent is due to tobacco. While tobacco consumption has come down significantly in developed countries like the US and UK, it is on a steep rise in developing countries, including India.

 

 

 

In India, warning and awareness on tobacco abuse appears on tobacco consumer products. Yet, the number of tobacco users is alarmingly high. 

According to Dr P.Guhan, director and chief oncologist, Srior, the toll-free helpline will give automated information in English and Tamil. Each of the numbers dialled on the dial screen will provide information on the illeffects of tobacco, diseases associated with tobacco, tips to quit tobacco, death rate due to tobacco, etc.

 

Though tobacco and tobacco-related products cause grave damage to the heart, vascular system, brain and nervous system, lungs and reproductive system, the most dreaded and threatening ailment caused by tobacco toxins in the vital organs is cancer.

 

Srior has launched Project Deepam (Detect Early Ensure Preventions and Management) to offer free oral cancer screening, free counselling against tobacco and teach alternative methods to give up tobacco. Screening camps are conducted every day free of cost to detect oral cancer among the rural and urban public of Coimbatore and Tirupur districts.

 

Srior has also been conducting campaigns against tobacco abuse and ‘Quit Tobacco’ initiatives for the past 12 years. Educative pamphlets are being distributed to people, short documentary movies are screened in villages, schools and colleges, and mobile awareness vans zip around Coimbatore.