Medical professionals join hands to fight tobacco

Medical professionals join hands to fight tobacco

Leading oncologists from Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) and various doctors from hospitals of Maharashtra met in Pune recently under the banner of Voice of Tobacco Victims (a campaign by Healis - Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health).

They were also joined by some of the leading dentists representing Indian Dental Association. These doctors discussed effective strategies for tobacco control in Maharashtra.

In India, every year, around one million new cancer cases are diagnosed and around 600,000 to 700,000 people die from cancer. In a recent report of April 2014, around two-fifths (40%) of all cancers in India are attributable to tobacco use and the economic costs of illness and premature death due to tobacco consumption exceed combined government and state expenditure and state expenditure on medical and public health, water supply and sanitation.

As per the GATS Report released by the MoHFW (2010), nearly 2.5 crore people in Maharashtra are consuming tobacco in some or the other form. One-third of them will suffer from serious illnesses such as cancer, heart diseases, lung cancers etc and will die prematurely. Hazards of tobacco are wide ranging. There's no body part which is not affected by it.

Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor - Surgical Oncology, TMH stated that doctors do the treatment after the disease has occurred but this time doctors have come forward to work at policy level and prevent our children from initiating tobacco. As the first step, the doctors have resolved to make all educational institutions in Maharashtra tobacco free.

Welcoming this, PC Gupta, director - Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, said, "VoTV (Voice of Tobacco Victims) Maharashtra state chapter has been launched today. Doctors in this campaign, who are already saving lives affected by cancer caused due to tobacco, are now volunteering and contributing to prevent tobacco use among children. VoTV has around 200 doctors from all over India associated with this campaign."

Vandana Joshi, ENT Consultant, from ENT Hospital, said, "The doctors have resolved to work with the Education Department and the Government of Maharashtra to make all educational institutions tobacco free."