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EDITORIAL: State ‘not worried’ about tobacco menace 

While about 40 per cent of health problems in the country are due to tobacco products and over 2,500 people loose their life everyday due to the consumption of tobacco, the state government continues with its lackadaisical attitude in preventing the menace, alleged Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), Aparajita, an anti-tobacco campaigner.

Though the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 was notified in the state in 2004 and a notice published for the same in the Orissa Gazette No. 735 on 31 May 2004, nothing substantial has yet been done, it pointed out.

“Tobacco is a serious public health issue and the state must give utmost importance to this. When the law is already in place and the state has notified it, the department of health and family welfare should activate the process so that instructions can quickly be carried out,” urged Ms Itishree Kanungo, project manager, VHAI-Aparajita . . . .

Instead of keeping the act in pen and paper, voices should be raised from all the side and pressure should be put on the government to implement the act as soon as possible, the anti-tobacco brigade urged one and all.

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