Chewing tobacco and spitting on the walls may soon be a thing of
past in Punjab. For, the Punjab Government has banned the sale of tobacco
products in the State-
Besides, any other food
product containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredient, by whatsoever name
available in the market, has also been banned.
The State Government on
Monday banned the sale, storage, manufacture and distribution of tobacco
product — gutkha, pan masala etc in the State from the date of issuance of
notification in this regard.
Already, the State
Government has banned the sale and consumption of gutkha and pan masala in four
districts, namely, Ropar, Mohali, Amritsar and Mansa. And the tag of 'tobacco
free' will now not be restricted to the districts only as the entire state will
now become 'tobacco-free State'.
With this, Punjab is set
to become the fifth State in the country to impose a ban on the sale of gutkha
and pan masala. The States of Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar
have already achieved the tag of 'tobacco-free States'.
Punjab Chief Minister
Parkash Singh Badal had cleared the file on Monday morning approving the
proposal of the State Health and Family Welfare department for banning gutkha
and pan masala in the larger interest of public health.
The Health department had
proposed that tobacco products be banned across State as the chewing of gutkha,
pan masala and other tobacco products was a potent health hazard. It was also
responsible for deadly disease of cancer especially of the mouth and throat.
The ban was imposed following formulation of a policy on banning gutkha in
consultation with the state cancer control. Also, the doctors of the School of
Public Health and Department of Community Medicine of the Post Graduate
Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh are assisting
the government in overcoming the hurdles that could come in the way of
enforcing the ban.
As per the Global Adult
Tobacco Survey, 2009-2010, 12 per cent people in the state consume tobacco and
6.5 per cent adults chew tobacco products.
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