Organisations seek Central law to check tobacco, pan masala use

and organisations working against the tobacco use have demanded a law by the centre government to ban “the production, storage, sale and marketing” of tobacco, pan masala and areca nut (supari).

“Pan masala is a very harmful substance affecting almost all organ systems, and there is immediate need for a national policy on complete ban on the production, storage, sale and marketing of it,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, a cancer specialist with Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, a day before the World Head and Neck Cancer Day on July 27.

According to experts, it has been proved that chewing tobacco causes oral cancer, but pan masala is a mixture of areca nut with slaked lime, catechu and other flavouring agents and leading cause of oral submucous fibrosis that often progresses to oral cancer.

Dr Chaturvedi said there is also an urgent need to recognise areca nut as a harmful food substance by the policy makers and prohibit its promotion as a mouth freshener. “Strict laws are necessary to regulate the production of commercial preparations of areca nut,” he added.

In the Global Adult Tobacco Survey – 2 (GATS-2) released last month by the Union ministry of health it was revealed that there are 4.5 crore pan masala (without tobacco) users, 8.1 crore betel quid (without tobacco) users and 7.5 crore areca nut (supari/betel nut) users. Apart from this, there are 19.9 crore Indian who chew tobacco mostly consume it, along with pan masala or areca nut, which means they are chewing two carcinogens simultaneously. Sanjay Seth, the trustee of Sambandh Health Foundation and head of Tobacco Control, said three states — Maharashtra, Goa and Mizoram — have banned pan masala. “If Rajasthan government wants, it can also ban it (pan masala) under Article 30 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006,” he added.

Dr Pawan Singhal, a head and neck cancer surgeon with the Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur, said Rajasthan gets 50,000 new cancer patients every year, of which 40% suffer from head and neck cancer.

He said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in a report in 2008 observed that 90% of the head and neck cancer diagnosed cases were due to consumption of alcohol, gutka, tobacco and betel nut and these have emerged as the root cause of the cancer, which is preventable.