Mumbai Police pledge to make police stations tobacco-free

To commemorate the World No Tobacco Day, which is being observed today, personnel of the Mumbai Police have vowed to make the city police stations tobacco-free.

Mumbai, May 31 : To commemorate the World No Tobacco Day, which is being observed today, personnel of the Mumbai Police have vowed to make the city police stations tobacco-free.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Dhananjay Jhadav administered the oath to the policemen at a ceremony organised by Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF), a voluntary organisation.

"It is the question of your will power. One can find lot of excuses for smoking. They smoke when it' hot, or when it's cold. They smoke to sleep or even not to sleep. One waste seven minutes of his or her life by smoking and additional seven minutes is lost in smoking itself, therefore one loses 14 minutes of his life every time he smokes," said Jhadav.

"We have been called here by the Salaam Bombay Foundation to take oath that we will not have tobacco from now on. It has lot of negative effects, it harms everyone," said Jayant Eknath Tawde, a constable.

India is the third largest tobacco producer and consumer in the world after China and United States of America. India exports one fourth of its total annual tobacco output, which is nearly 545 million kilograms.

According to a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), two persons die every minute in India due to tobacco-linked ailments.

Tobacco victims in the country out-number the AIDS victims, as one million of the 250 million Indian tobacco users die every year.

As per the ICMR report, 16 per cent tobacco consumers in India are cigarettes smokers and 44 per cent are beedi (country made cigarettes) smokers. In all, 60 per cent tobacco users in India are at risk of having lung cancer. Rest 40 per cent chew tobacco and are at risk of having oral cancer.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there will be more than ten million deaths a year due to oral cancer in the next thirty years, with 70 percent of those occurring in developing countries like India.

WHO has called for a global ban on smoking at work and in enclosed public places, saying this was the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide.

Some 200,000 people die each year due to exposure to tobacco smoke at work, while about 700 million children, half the world's total, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, WHO said.

ANI