Highest Cigarettes Consuming States, Northeast Tobacco Use
Mizoram and Nagaland have earned the doubtful difference of becoming the highest cigarettes consuming states in the northeast. The general data on prevalence of cigarettes smoking in northeastern states show that next to Mizoram, which has tobacco use of 67% – including 40% in the smoking category and 41% in the smokeless category, Nagaland has a prevalence smoking rate of 57 per cent with 32% in the smoking category and 45% in the smokeless category.
It has been discovered that every second man and every third woman in the state is addicted to cigarettes, and as per the Global Tobacco Survey (GTS), MOHFW, 69% men and 43% women are smoking tobacco products. The figures were showed during a press briefing on Saturday by a high power delegation of ministry of health and family welfare (MHFW), who were in Kohima on a one-day visit.
The delegation included Pankaj Chaturvedi, Tata Memorial Hospital; Amal Pusp, director, National Smoking Control Program; L Swasti Charan, chief medical officer, General Health Services; and Dr L Ashananda, regional director, health & family eelfare, Imphal.
The ministry of health and family health delegation also manifest serious concerns over the cigarettes consumption, particularly gutka, which has been noted as “very, very high” in Nagaland. They also pointed out that Nagaland is among states with the highest rate of tobacco-related diseases in the entire country and also among those with the highest amount of lung cancer in the entire world, especially among women. The researchers underlined that 57% of the inhabitants means that an estimated 2.5 lakh people in Nagaland are smokers.
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