THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Citing increasing incidence of diseases like oral cancer, the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala today announced a ban on the manufacture and sale of gutka and pan masala containing tobacco in the state with immediate effect.

Announcing the decision at a press conference here, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the ban on gutka and pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine was enforced under the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Regulation Act, 2011.

Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year. More than 600,000 people are exposed to passive smoking. Unless the countries take action promptly to arrest tobacco use, the death rate will rise to eight million people by 2030. Of them more than 80 per cent live in low and middle-income countries," Professor Carlo Fonseka told The Island.

SHILLONG: The rise in the number of cancer cases in Meghalaya with a total of 2620 reported cases during the last five years is a matter of concern for the State Government, said Meghalaya Health Minister Rowell Lyngdoh. The disease in on the rise and the State Government has taken up various health programmes to control the disease.

Talking to reporters, Lyngdoh said that the statistics available with the Health Department recorded that in 2006, the reported cases of cancer was only 303. In 2007, the number of people affected with the disease went up to 457 and in 2008, it was 464. In 2009,

District Collector P.G. Thomas has said that tobacco use is a habit that does no good but brings misery to society.

“Therefore the habit has to be given up” he said while launching the “Tobacco-free Kollam” scheme at a function here on Thursday. The harm of tobacco use was that it was not only harmful to the user, but also to others who do not use it. So it was high time that people give up smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco products.

A recent test on gutka packets by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revealed that most tobacco packets contain the banned toxic chemical magnesium carbonate, the quantity of which is as high as seven per cent.

According to oncologists, magnesium carbonate can cause unusual health risks, which include stomach ulcers, irreparable damage to lining of oral cavity among others.

Cancer has resulted in about six lakh deaths in India in 2010. And over 70 percent of these deaths occurred in the productive age between 30 and 69 years, said a nationally representative survey – “Cancer mortality in India”.

The three most common fatal cancers in men were oral, stomach and lung cancer, the survey said, and cervical breast and stomach in women, said Dr Rajesh Dikshit, Epidemiologist with the Tata Memorial Hospital, and one of the authors in the study.

Cancer caused 5,56,400 deaths in the country in 2010 and 71 per cent of those who died were aged between 30 and 69 years, according to findings of the Million Death Study, one of the largest studies ever of premature mortality in India. Associate professor at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Dr Rajesh Dixit, along with other researchers detailed the findings of the research in a paper titled ‘Cancer mortality in India: a nationally representative survey’ which was published in the Lancet on Wednesday.

Cancer killed 5,56,400 people across the country in 2010. The 30-69 age group accounted for 71 per cent (3,95,400) of the deaths. In 2010, cancer alone accounted for 8 per cent of the 2.5 million total male deaths and 12 per cent of the 16 million total female deaths in this age group. These are some of the findings of a paper published on March 28 in The Lancet.

The study found that 7,137 of the 1,22,429 deaths during 2001-2003 were due to cancer, corresponding to 5,56,400 cancer deaths in 2010. At nearly 23 per cent,

Cancer deaths accounted for six per cent of deaths across all ages, but among the 30-69 years age group this rose to eight per cent of the 25 lakh total male deaths and 12 per cent of the 16 lakh total female deaths.

In men aged between 30 and 69, the three most common fatal cancers were oral cancer (including lip and pharynx) accounting for 23 per cent of all cancer deaths, stomach cancer accounting for 13 per cent, and lung cancer (including trachea and larynx) at 11 per cent.