Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, APRIL 26
It is estimated that the number of tobacco users in Nagaland average 57% of the country’s percentage. It is higher than the country’s average which stands at 34.6%, and the second largest consumer of tobacco in the north eastern region after Mizoram, where the percentage is 67.2, according to Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-2010 conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.
This was informed at a workshop on tobacco control conducted for departmental law enforcement officers at the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare in Kohima town on Tuesday. The chief secretary of Nagaland, Pankaj Kumar, was the chief guest of the inaugural function.
With tobacco-related diseases and deaths becoming a major health issue in the recent years, the department of Health & Family Welfare, the nodal agency for Nagaland, organized the workshop. For the first time, a middle rank officer from each department was being trained and appointed as law enforcement officer to control and look after violation of tobacco control laws.
Sensing the grave situation in the country and particularly in the state for urgent intervention, the chief secretary said that the casual attitude about the ill-effect of tobacco cannot be overlooked anymore. Concerning health, time and money should not be lost or wasted, he said.
The chief secretary also asked that the commissioner to instruct deputy commissioners to undertake surveys in the towns and ‘see if any shops were selling tobacco products near school areas.’ The regulations against selling tobacco near educational institutions should be enforced strictly, Kumar said. District tobacco-control officers are also instructed to ask the district administrations to conduct periodical reviews to see that tobacco is not sold near schools.
Pankaj Kumar has also asked the district administrations to conduct campaigns by ‘using all measures available under law’ to ensure that tobacco use is minimized, and access to it limited. This, he said, would help creating a healthier society. Also urging the participants, the chief secretary maintained that the workshop should be a platform to ‘renew our reform to fight with the menace of tobacco use.’
Also, the principal director of the Health & Family Department, Dr Sukhato A Sema, highlighted the objective of the workshop. He said it was to ‘understand in detail the tobacco control laws i.e., COPTA 2003, understand tobacco health burdens, be sensitized to the issue, develop concern for the people, driven with positive action on the community.’
Hence, he encouraged participants of the workshop to be a ‘positive, reliable and accountable role model for tobacco free family and community, and at the same become a responsible anti-tobacco activist and reliable enforcement officers in our workplaces.’
Another official, Joint director Dr H Hotokhu Chishi, also said that the health directorate ‘will strictly enforce the COPTA 2003 section 4 which prohibits any person to smoke in any public place, starting next week. He informed that any person found smoking inside the premises of the directorate would be penalized with a fine of Rs 200.
Through a power point presentation, Dr Chishi showed the state’s tobacco profile at 57% (tobacco users), 26.3% (cigarette smokers), 11.8% (bidi users) and 45% (smokeless tobacco products users). Male tobacco users stand at 68%, female users at 28% while 37% of the school children were found to be smoking; 41% of school children use smokeless tobacco, according to the Global School Personal Survey (GSPS) 2003.
Besides, as per the Nagaland School Oral Health Survey of 2014, 28.3% of the children of the age group 8-13 years, between class III and class VIII, were found to be ‘smokeless users’ while 14.8% smoked and 41.2% of the children were ‘found’ buying tobacco for parents.
As per the district-wise tobacco profile, Dimapur is found to have the highest number of tobacco users followed by Kohima, Mokokchung, Wokha, and Peren. Also, the total number of registered patients with tobacco-related health cases stands at a total of 99,237. A total of 243 tobacco-related precancerous cases were detected while 115 cases of tobacco-related cancer cases were confirmed and referred to institutions outside the state during the period 2007-2009.
The revenue earned through tobacco by the state during the period 2013-2015 stands at Rs 17.37 crore whereby the health cost comes to a total of Rs 33,19,96,441 crore.
Also, explaining briefly about the burdens of tobacco on health, economy and environment, Dr Chishi said that the major challenges included ‘complacence and false immunity, insensitive attitude and non-compliance to rule of Law, empathetic attitude and most of all prevention not treated as primary.’
The health official has called upon citizens and health workers to be ‘proactive towards eliminating this menace which is destroying the lives of many people, by doing the best both at individual and community level, adding that we have no solution until we bring a solution.’
The chief judicial magistrate of Kohima, Mezivolu T Therieh, also explained the Tobacco Control Act (COPTA 2003) sections 4, 5, 6 and 7. Therieh called for adherence to the Act ‘effectively.’
