World No Tobacco Day 2018: No More Sale Of Non-Tobacco Products At Tobacco Selling Shops

In an effort to curb the consumption of tobacco among students and teenagers, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday asked all the state governments to develop systems under which all tobacco-selling shops would need due authorisation and licensing from the local municipal bodies for selling tobacco prodcts. It further stated that these tobacco shops must be barred from selling other non-tobacco products as such chips, chocolates, soft drinks etc.
 

According to a letter issued by Arun Kumar Jha, Economic Adviser in the National Health Mission (NHM) to chief secretaries of all states, "Regulation of tobacco products can be made more effective with the development of a mechanism to provide authorization through Municipal Authority to the retail shops who are selling tobacco products."

"It would also be appropriate to make a condition/provision in the authorization that shops authorized for selling tobacco products, cannot sell any non-tobacco products such as toffees, candies, chips, biscuits, soft drinks, etc, which are essentially meant for non-user, especially children," it states further.

The move is being welcomed by the general public and many social organisations working towards eliminating tobacco consumption as they believe that the move to ban the sale of non-tobacco products as such chips and soft-drinks, which are very much popular among school and college students, at these cigarette shops will significantly help reduce the consumption of tobacco among children and teenagers.

It is estimated that one out of every third Indian consumes tobacco in some form or the other.

A whopping 50% of cancer cases reported in India are in relation to tobacco consumption.

Moreover, apart from the usual tobacco smokers, non-smokers are also at high risk of developing serious health problems owing to second-hand and third-hand smoking.