DIMAPUR, Sept 2 - Women church leaders of Dimapur took a pledge to actively support anti-tobacco campaign in their respective churches at an advocacy workshop on the involvement of women church leaders in tobacco control programme organised by National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) here recently.
�Tobacco kills more than AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined. No other consumer product is as dangerous, or kills as many people,� Associate Professor of School of Nursing, CIHSR Dimapur, A Purnungla Aier said. She was speaking on the topic �The Impact of Tobacco Epidemic: Involvement of the Churches in Tobacco Control Programme.�
According to Tobacco Atlas 2012, Aier said, half of the users die in middle age between 35-69 years.
She said, Nagaland, with 57 per cent of its populace using tobacco, is the second highest consumer of tobacco in the country. Referring to National Health Mission Director Dr Sukhato A Sema�s documentation, she said as per the Nagaland School Oral Health Survey 2014 report, 28.3 per cent school going children are smokeless tobacco users while 14.8 per cent are into smoking habits. Further 41.2 per cent children are engaged by parents to buy tobacco. On the district-wise profile of tobacco consumption, Dimapur has the highest number of consumers followed by Kohima.
Aier stated that women play a pivotal role in the emergence of a healthy society and they can facilitate millions of current tobacco users to quit the habit.
