New Delhi, May 31(UNI) On World No Tobacco Day, Health Ministry on Friday said tobacco consumption is injurious to health which affects your heart, lungs, stomach as well as your nervous system.
'Quit Tobacco today and stay healthy. Tobacco consumption is a major risk factor for diseases like cancer, CVDs, stroke. The ‘Tobacco Cessation Programme’ helps in quitting tobacco and leading a healthy life,' said a tweet of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills more than seven million people each year. Over six million deaths are a result of direct consumption whereas 8,90,000 are the result of passive smoking. Nearly 100 million premature deaths have been recorded in the 20th century and the figure is set to increase to 1 billion by the 21st century.
Dr Jaskaran Singh Sethi, Director and HOD, Radiation Oncology, Fortis Hospital Shalimar Bagh said, 'The fact is that tobacco consumption compromises the health and economic well-being of all citizens in acountry, from children, youth, men and women and its use presents dangerous consequences for everyone. Both smoking and smokeless tobacco use cause many forms of cancers leading to early, painful deaths of users in their productive years. It is therefore critical to raise awareness to help reduce use and protect the health of the people.'
Smoking kills over one million people in India annually and is the fourth leading cause of non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as cancer and heart diseases, which account for 53 per cent of all deaths in India.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015, the Union Government, among the 13 states surveyed, tobacco use among men has fallen from 50 per cent in 2005-06 to 47 per cent in 2015.
Dr Sethi said at least 11 of the 13 states in the report have reported a decline in the numbers between 2005-06 and 2015-16. In Sikkim, there is up to 20 per cent dip in tobacco use. The only two states that showed increase in consumption were Manipur and Meghalaya.

Haryana specifically has a 32 per cent prevalence of tobacco usage, with about 3.2 million smokers in the year 2015.
Smoking tobacco has several hazards which include tobacco smoke is made up of thousands of chemicals, including at least 70 known to cause cancer. These cancer-causing chemicals are referred to as carcinogens. Some of the chemicals found in tobacco smoke include Hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, benzene, ammonia and radioactive elements.
Many of these cause cancer and some can cause heart disease, lung disease, or other serious health problems, too. Most of the substances come from the burning tobacco leaves themselves, not from additives included in cigarettes (or other tobacco products).
Nicotine, the addictive drug that is the key stimulant people are looking for is one of the harshest chemicals in tobacco smoke.
Tobacco-related diseases include the most common, nearly half of all, are cancers of the lung and oral cavity in men, and of the breast and cervix in women.
The rate of occurrence of lung cancer is 11 per 1, 00,000 individuals and of oral cavity cancer, 10.1. The rates of occurrences of breast and cervical cancers are 25.8 and 22.0 per 1, 00,000.
UNI AE RSA 1530