GANGTOK, June 6 � In a landmark development, Sikkim was declared as a smoke-free State on the World No Tobacco Day recently. With this, the State has become the first State in the entire country to declare itself smoke-free.
Making a formal declaration to this effect at a function to mark the World No Tobacco Day at the Forest Conference Hall here, State Health Minister D N Thakarpa described it as a great achievement of the SDF Government which will have a significant impact on the health and economy of the State.
He revealed that four-fifth of deaths in Sikkim is due to non-communicable diseases and tobacco is the most important preventable cause of death. Thakarpa informed that even among communicable diseases Tuberculosis is one of the major killer diseases which has strong association with smoking as the smokers suffer three times more from TB and their death rate too is three to four times higher.
The function was organised jointly by the Health department and the Voluntary Health Association of Sikkim (VHAS) in collaboration with Union South East Asia, UATLD.
Asserting that Sikkim has made great progress in implementation of Smoke free Laws which has been well appreciated by International Organisations and people across the border, the Health Minister made it clear that declaration is based on objective assessment of Smoke Free status as per the norms laid in the National Level Review of Smoke Free Status held at Goa last year.
Sikkim was one of the few States to have passed the �Sikkim Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers� Health Protection Act� in 1997, along with Union Territory of Delhi. However, as per the study done, the scenario in August 2007 was a lot different than what is seen today. Anyone found smoking can be fined by a notified officer, including the person in charge of the premises.
During the declaration of the Smoke Free State, it was informed that, all districts and Gangtok were surveyed. Simple randomised sampling was used to observe public places like office, rest house, shops, bus stops, taxi stands, prominent roads and footpaths. Although, the public places in Sikkim are Smoke Free, all including smokers supported smoke free laws, 98 per cent of public did not indulge in active smoking.
