Tobacco addiction in Bihar at an alarming stage — Study

PATNA, JANUARY 10: More than 45 per cent school students are addicted to tobacco in Bihar. According to a joint study conducted by assista...

PATNA, JANUARY 10: More than 45 per cent school students are addicted to tobacco in Bihar. According to a joint study conducted by assistant professor Dr Dhirendra Narayan Sinha, Department of Surgery, Patna Medical College, and senior scientist Prakash C Gupta of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, 89 per cent of the mediapersons were either addicted to smoking or chewing tobacco.

At least 93.2 per cent professional blood donors in the Patna Medical College hospital were habitual tobacco users. The study also revealed that the tobacco habit had spread in all sections of the society including academicians. Addiction rate was 81.91 per cent among the young advocates of the Patna high court.

The percentage of tobacco addiction among high school students in Vaishali district, a major tobacco cultivating area, was as high as 55 per cent. The study revealed that 28.57 per cent to 37.32 per cent students using smokeless tobacco or areca nut products were suffering from oral submucous fibrosis.

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Astonishingly, the addiction rate was quite high among the medical students and professors of medical colleges. Nearly 43.75 per cent male medicos and two to three per cent female medicos were using tobacco while 30 per cent of the professors of PMCH and 46 per cent professors of Patna college were tobacco addicts.

Sinha said that five lakh people were suffering from oral malignancy disorders following tobacco addiction. Nearly 50,000 new cases were being added every year in the state.

He lamented that the state government had totally failed in launching tobacco control measures and suggested that more awareness campaigns in the form of advertisements and seminars should be organised to make the people aware of its ill effects.

Sinha said tobacco related subjects should be added in the school and college syllabus to protect furure generations from the evils of using tobacco.

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The study said that smokeless tobacco products and areca nut products had added a new dimension to the chewing habit in the younger generation as 23.2 per cent students of Patna college and 3.62 per cent girl students of Patna womens’ college chewed it regularly.

In suburban and rural areas, the tobacco addiction rate was recorded at 43.5 per cent and 58.8 per cent respectively. The epidemiological study conducted in Singhbhum and Darbhanga districts showed that tobacco addiction rate in these two districts was recorded at 55.7 per cent and 63.9 per cent respectively.

About 13.4 per cent female population of Singhbhum were in the habit of chewing tobacco while smoking was common among 21.8 per cent female population of Darbhanga. The study said that the tobacco habit was dangerous as 42.55 per cent users suffered with first symptoms of burning related with oral malignancy disorders within three years and 44.68 per cent had the symptoms within five years while 12.76 per cent were taken into the grip of the symptoms after a long period of use.

Sinha said that 80 per cent of male cancers in Bihar were tobacco related which could be avoided if proper tobacco prevention programmes were launched.