India tightening ban on chewing tobacco

(September 8, 2012) Ten Indian states have banned a popular form of chewing tobacco in a major policy shift that may save millions of lives and strike a blow at the global tobacco industry, already reeling from new anti-smoking laws around the world. But an estimated 65 million Indians use "gutka" - a heady form of chewing tobacco made of crushed betel nut, nicotine and laced with thousands of chemicals - and furious manufacturers are fighting to have the bans overturned. Companies are complaining the bans are threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers and street vendors. Last week, Punjab became the tenth of 28 states to ban the sale of gutka after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India reclassified it as a foodstuff, prohibiting the use of tobacco and nicotine as "ingredients in any food product". Some 482 million people live in the 10 states which have enforced the bans. Delhi, Gujarat and Chandigarh, with a combined population of 77 million, are due to follow suit. Gutka is popular with the young and old alike, many of whom are not alarmed about the nation's leading cause of oral cancer. Asia's third-largest economy battles almost 80,000 new cases of oral cancer yearly. The treatment of tobacco-related diseases cost more than $5 billion in 2002-2003, according to the most recent data available cited in a health ministry and WHO report. That compares to about $1.4 billion that the government earns in excise revenue from tobacco.