GUWAHATI, Aug 16 - The Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA) has welcomed the move of the State Government to strictly implement the Assam Health Act, 2013 in the State, which bans sale, distribution, consumption, trade and storage of smokeless products containing tobacco or nicotine.
The State Health Department on August 8, 2016, had issued an official message to the Food Safety Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police of all the districts to implement the aforesaid Act in letter and spirit and enforce total ban on sale, distribution, trade, storage and consumption of smokeless products such as zarda, gutkha, pan masala, etc., containing tobacco and/or nicotine, with immediate effect.
It may be mentioned that under the Assam Health (Prohibition of manufacturing, advertisement, trade storage, distribution, sale and consumption of zarda, gutkha, pan masala, etc., containing tobacco) Act, 2013, anyone found consuming smokeless tobacco was to be punished with fine of up to Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for the second and any subsequent offence or offences.
Whoever found involved in manufacture, advertisement, trade, storage, distribution of such products containing tobacco and/or nicotine shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and with fine not less than Rs 1 lakh and which may be extended to Rs 5 lakh.
�Strict enforcement of the ban on smokeless tobacco products is the need of the hour considering the large number people getting affected by oral cancer due to smokeless tobacco use in Assam,� said Ruchira Neog, executive secretary, VHAA, welcoming the move of the State Government to stringently enforce the Act.
She added that the proper enforcement of the Act would save the students and youth from the ill-effects of consuming pan masala mixed with zarda. Use of smokeless tobacco products, mainly pan masala and zarda mixture, among students and youth is very high in Assam.
As per the latest report of the Cancer Registry, 49.7 per cent of all cancers in male and 24.1 per cent in female in Kamrup Metro district are tobacco-related cancers. In Dibrugarh district, it is 51.6 per cent in male and 22.8 per cent in female. Similarly, in Cachar district, 46.2 per cent and 20.6 per cent in male and female respectively are tobacco-related cancers.
Nearly 70 per cent of patients treated in the Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati, in 2013-14 developed cancer due to tobacco use.
The State Government, in 2011, out of its total health budget of Rs 541.2 crore, had spent Rs 157.8 crore for treatment of tobacco-related diseases alone.
