More than 600,000 kids smoke cigarettes in India daily: Report

About 6,25,000 children aged 10-14 years smoke cigarettes in the country every day, with 17,887 people dying of tobacco-related diseases in a week, according to a global study.

With 1.03 billion adults (15 years and above) smoking daily, the Global Tobacco Atlas pegged the economic cost of the habit at Rs 1,818,691 million. This includes the direct cost of healthcare and the indirect cost of lost productivity from premature deaths and illnesses, according to the study by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and US-based Vital Strategies.

“India has made progress on tobacco control in recent years. However, people continue to die and become sick needlessly, and the costs to society from tobacco

NEWDELHI:

Cigarettes produced in India in 2016 Men smoking cigarettes daily

use continue to mount,” the report said.

Released last week, the study said about 932,600 Indians were killed by tobacco-related disease every year. The figure, however, was lower than the average number of deaths caused by tobacco in medium Human Development Index (HDI) countries.

“There is still a lot that needs to be done to curb use of tobacco that is one of the leading causes of developing cardio-vascular diseases, Women who smoke cigarettes daily People who use smokeless tobacco, a cause of oral cancers

stroke, pulmonary diseases and certain types of cancers,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, senior cancer surgeon at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

Although fewer children smoked cigarettes in India than the average in medium HDI nations, the figures stood at 429,500 boys and 195,500 girls. The study also showed that more men smoked cigarettes than women every day.