Sunita Tomar, the poster woman for anti-tobacco drive in India died on Wednesday at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. She was 30 years-old and had fought a long battle against cancer before it relapsed.
Sunita Tomar, the poster woman for anti-tobacco drive in India died on Wednesday at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. She was 30 years-old and had fought a long battle against cancer before it relapsed.
According to an Indian Express report, Tomar was admitted to the hospital three days ago after she complained of breathing difficulty and weight loss.
In an attempt to bring in stronger health warnings on packets of tobacco products in India, Tomar who was undergoing treatment at Parel's Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), had written to prime minister Narendra Modi on the issue two days before her death.
Tomar's decision to shoot off a letter to the PM came after BJP MP from Ahmadnagar Dilip Gandhi, who is also the chairman of the committee on subordinate legislation, recently made a recommendation to the union health ministry on this. Mentioned in a report submitted by the committee, the recommendation is that a medical board first examine the health effects of tobacco on the Indian population before going ahead with the decision of mandating pictorial warnings covering 85% of the packages.
Tomar, who was the mother of two, said, "When I started consuming tobacco, there was no warning on its ill effects. I did not know that tobacco chewing would lead to cancer and spoil my life. Doctors say though I have been cured, the oral cancer can strike back. After being through the pain, I decided to warn other users through my experience."
In the letter, Tomar had expressed her unhappiness on Gandhi's statement. Her views are being echoed by doctors, public health advocates and tobacco control activists from across India, who too are shocked by what Gandhi said, that there are no studies in India that have examined the ill effects of tobacco on people's health.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, professor and head and neck surgeon at TMH, said, "It is shocking that a senior MP is so poorly informed about the facts pertaining to harmful effects of tobacco. The industry all over the world has admitted that its product is harmful and hence agreed to adopt warnings on packs as part of its manufacturer liability. In fact, tobacco is the only consumer product that has no good use whatsoever. Tobacco is the attributable cause of 50% cancers in India and a majority of lung or heart diseases. It is appalling that Gandhi is challenging the recommendations of WHO, United Nations, UICC, CDC, NCI etc, on this."
In December 2010, the Supreme Court had directed the ministry of health to constitute an expert committee to study the harmful effects of tobacco. The committee submitted a damning report, proving beyond doubt that tobacco is indeed very harmful.
"Beedi is killing 6 lakh people annually in India. With nearly 85% of the world's beedi tobacco grown in India and 70% of tobacco smoked in the country being in the form of beedis, more Indians have now been found to be dying of beedi smoking than from all other forms of tobacco combined," said Dr PC Gupta, director, Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health.
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