RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Sept.27: Craze of tobacco among the juveniles of age group 13 to 15 is less than the national average in Jharkhand and the state government is committed to take it to a negligible level in days to come.
State health minister Banna Gupta gave an indication of this while releasing Jharkhand-related data of Global Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) at the Institute of Public Health (IPH) at Namkum.
According to NYTS, 8.5 percent of juveniles of age group of 13 to 15 consume tobacco in different forms across the country while in Jharkhand 5.1 percent of juveniles of this group consume the same, the health minister said.
Sharing the data, the minister informed about the negative impact of the habit of consuming tobacco and steps being taken by the state government to reduce the tobacco consumption level further in the state.
“Across the country 13 lakh people die of diseases caused by the habit of tobacco consumption. The reason behind 90 percent of mouth cancer is tobacco consumption. 40 percent of people dying in India are tobacco consumers,” minister Gupta said, sharing the negative impact of tobacco consumption.
“Thus to put a check on the habit of tobacco consumption several steps are being taken. The steps include awareness campaigns, workshops, banning the sale of tobacco products and raids on shops selling tobacco without license besides taking an undertaking from the government employees to not consume tobacco at the time of their appointment either on a regular or contract basis,” the health minister said sharing the government steps.
