GUWAHATI, April 27 - The Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) has taken some innovative steps in the run-up to the World No Tobacco Day which will be observed next month. Every year BBCI takes up a month-long programme in the context of World No Tobacco Day.
The steps and actions have been initiated taking into consideration the World No Tobacco Day theme for this year, �Get ready for plain packaging�, the institute said in a statement.
This year the theme implies that the tobacco products should have a plain packaging without any promotional pictures, and should depict only the pictorial health warnings and the tobacco health hazard message on the packets. BBCI will organise and conduct ten awareness camps on hazards of tobacco to sensitise the students of schools, colleges and universities throughout the month of May.
The institute also plans a human chain on World No Tobacco Day to raise public awareness about tobacco hazards. Indoor games amongst cancer patients who are victims of tobacco will be organised. An inter-college debate contest, �Plain packaging and health warnings on tobacco products will help� for the motion and against the motion will be held on May 27.
The best debater will be awarded by BBCI on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day. On the same day, a public meeting will be held at the institute, where anti-tobacco activists will be felicitated.
May 31 is celebrated worldwide as World No tobacco Day.
BBCI said tobacco is a proven health hazard. �It is the major risk factor of cancer. About 50 per cent cancers in males and 25 per cent in females are tobacco related. To control cancer tobacco has to be controlled. Decreasing consumption of tobacco, controlling its sale and production, and stringent tobacco control legislation are mandatory for reducing the incidence of cancer. It will also help to lower other health and socio-economic burdens caused by tobacco,� it said.
