Progress in reducing tobacco use is a key indicator for measuring countries’ efforts to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – target 3.a under the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Countries have adopted this indicator to report progress also towards the tobacco reduction target under the Global Action Plan …
People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study. "It's another argument for why the regulatory levels (for air pollutants) …
GUWAHATI: The prevalence of tobacco use in any form is highest in the Northeast. Mizoram has the highest prevalence of tobacco use, around 67.2 per cent. Ironically, Mizoram also has the highest literacy rate in the country. In Assam tobacco use is 39 per cent which is a little higher …
THE UN General Assembly has adopted a watered-down political declaration to reduce the burden of chronic lifestyle diseases. The event signals the beginning of a larger fight between industry and health policy makers. The resolution was passed at a summit ahead of the General Assembly in New York on September …
Should government-run companies invest in tobacco companies? This is the question that Voices of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an NGO working for cancer patients, has raised after its recent query under the RTI Act revealed that the Life Corporation of India has invested up to Rs 3,500 crore in various tobacco …
The World Health Organisation’s chief on Monday urged governments to unite against ‘big tobacco’, as she accused the industry of dirty tricks, bullying and immorality in its quest to keep people smoking. WHO director-general Margaret Chan accused cashed-up tobacco firms of using lawsuits to try and subvert national laws and …
Three years after implementation of the no-smoking rules that came into effect on October 2, 2008, over 42,194 people have been fined/challaned and over Rs.30 lakh has been collected by the Delhi Government from defaulters. According to the data collected by the Delhi State Tobacco Control Cell, of those challaned, …
Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, is trying to force a British university to reveal details of its research involving thousands of children aged between 11 and 16 about their attitudes towards smoking and cigarette packaging. The demands from the tobacco company, made using the UK’s Freedom of …
n 2008, 36 million people died from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). 1 By 2020, NCDs are projected to cause almost three quarters as many deaths as communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional diseases, and by 2030 to exceed them as the most common causes of death. 2 On Sept 19, 2011, the …
The United Nations will begin debating Monday how to stem a proliferation of chronic diseases that a new report says could cost the global economy trillions of dollars over the next two decades if left unchecked. The two-day meeting on noncommunicable diseases, as illnesses from heart disease to cancer, diabetes …
As the UN begins its meeting to devise strategies to tackle NCDs, Indian public health activists say it was a wake-up call for the health authorities in India. Some of them expressed concern that the meeting may be used to push industry agenda.
At his weekly gentleman’s club in a village not far from the Kenyan capital, Francis Marimbe Mwathi gathers his friends to dine on “the meat of men”. Washed down with a few beers, it is hardly the health-conscious diet his doctors advise. Mr Mwathi has diabetes. Already his eyesight is …
Just 14 percent of New York City adults said they were smokers in 2010, the lowest level since the city began tracking the smoking rate nearly two decades ago, according to a survey released on Thursday. The drop was particularly steep among young adults, which suggested, experts said, that a …
Cancer specialists and public health officials optimistic that incidence of cancer will come down With the Union Health Ministry categorising pan masala and gutka as banned food products because they contain tobacco, there is fresh hope among cancer specialists and public health officials that incidence of cancer caused by these …
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a global health and developmental emergency, as they cause premature deaths, exacerbate poverty and threaten national economies. In 2008, they were the top killers in the South-East Asia region, causing 7.9 million deaths; the number of deaths is expected to increase by 21% over the next …
This should come as a serious wake up call for female smokers. The risk of developing coronary heart disease is 25% higher for women smokers compared with men, according to a study published in the British medical journal ‘The Lancet’ on Thursday. The authors say this could be due to …
Cafe Mocha on Wednesday told the Bombay high court that hookahs are far less dangerous than cigarettes asthey contain less quantity of nicotine and are not easily available. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Girish Godbole was hearing petitions filed by Berry’s Hotel, which runs Mocha, …
Whereas, it is expedient to make legal provision to reduce, control and regulate the import, production, sales and distribution and consumption of tobacco products as smoking and tobacco consumption are very injurious to human health and they also have negative impact on activity of society, economy and culture; and Whereas, …
A new study has found that getting motivational text messages can help smokers quit the habit. The study published in the Lancet found smokers are twice as likely to give up cigarettes when receiving the motivational texts. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine put 5,800 smokers …
Tobacco use is rising in Pakistan, with about 30.7 per cent of men estimated to be smokers, while 100,000 people die from tobacco-related causes annually, said doctors at a press conference on Thursday. According to them, smoking has been forbidden in various schools of thoughts in Islam across the world. …
Add yet another item to the long list of damaging effects of secondhand smoke: hearing loss in teenagers. Researchers, writing in the July issue of The Archives of Otolaryngology
