Even smokeless tobacco consumption may cause life-threatening ailments

NEW DELHI: Reduction in tobacco use can save a lot of money spent on treating the plethora of diseases that tobacco consumption causes. Not only consumption of tobacco products badly impact various organs of the body, but consumption of smokeless tobacco also adversely affects the health and causes life-threatening ailments such as cancer and heart disease, say experts.

Dr Shiv Chaudhary, Professor and Head of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, DELHI-AIIMS, has said that tobacco is the single most known and preventable cause of cardiovascular death and disability in the world.

“Chemicals like nicotine are constructive in nature, leading to coronary problems. It is commonly known that smoking increases the risk of heart disease but the fact is that smokeless forms of tobacco are equally harmful,” explains Dr Choudhary.

“Even smokeless tobacco causes similar ill effects in direct or indirect forms. Apart from causing direct damage to the vessels of our body, it causes significantly increased mortality in case of a heart attack in people consuming smokeless tobacco,” added the experts.

According to Sambandh Health Foundation data, 2,739 people lose their lives every day in India due to cancer caused by the use of tobacco and tobacco products. Tobacco use is classified as a ‘disease' under International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). This is because the quit rates are very low – only about three percent in India. With such a low probability of quitting and such a high probability of tobacco use leading to a multitude of diseases, the prevalence of tobacco consumption has been rightly termed as the Tobacco Epidemic.

As per Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS2) 2016-17, consumption of smokeless tobacco in India is far more than smoked tobacco. The data shows that 42.4 percent of men, 14.2 percent of women and 28.6 percent of all adults currently either smoke or use smokeless tobacco.