How Dangerous is Tobacco.

Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.There are over 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette,40 of which are carcinogenic.Nicotine,tar,HCN,volatile aldehydes,and nitrosamines are some of the hazardous substances in tobacco smoke.The most effective preventive measure is to avoid use.Cancer killed 5,56,400 people in the country last year and it is alarming that India has more than 300 million smokers.Five million of them are children and at least 55,000 children take to tobacco every year.

Oral cancer

There are twice as many deaths as a result of oral cancerthanks to tobacco chewingcompared to lung cancer.Rural men are twice more likely to die from tobaccorelated cancers,compared to urban men in India.The top five or six cancers in men are all tobacco-related : that of the lung,oral cavity,larynx,oesophagus and pharynx.In women,types of cancer that occur due to tobacco use are cancers of the cervix,oral cavity,oesophagus and lung.Combining alcohol with cigarettes increases risk of oral cancer,and of cancer of the larynx and oesophagus.Tobacco products produce changes in all of the cells that are exposed.Thus,the entire oral cavity,lungs and larynx are at risk for developing tumours.This can be prevented by simple changes in lifestyle and regular screening.


Kill the gutka habit

The Indian Cancer Society says this high prevalence of oral cancer in India is primarily because of smokeless tobacco-gutka,quid,snuff,misri.Tobacco,when kept in the mouth,leaches out carcinogens,which act on oral mucosa causing neoplastic changes.Tobacco chewers and smokers may develop white or reddish patches in the mouth called leukoplakia or erythroplakia.They report limited mouth opening and burning sensation on eating spicy food.Oral submucous fibrosis is a progressive lesion in which the opening of the mouth becomes limited,and eating becomes difficult.It occurs in people who use supari or areca nut with or without tobacco.It is not necessary that tobacco alone causes cancer but supari can produce submucous fibrosis,a premalignant condition with high incidence of conversion to cancer. Refer