States which banned gutka

Sale of pan masala in Mumbai further indicated the need of active measures to implement tobacco control regulation. Most vendors did not have any loss of income due to ban as non- gutka smokeless tobacco products and smoking products continued to be sold freely. Most former gutka users shifted to these products or were buying gutka from vendors selling it illegally at a premium price. Hence, impact on consumer base and on the net profit of vendors seemed to be negligible due to ban in its current form.

While 20 per cent interviewed vendors admitted selling gutka in Mumbai, 90 per cent admitted selling it in Indore. Some demand for gutka was, however, substituted by demand for other tobacco products.

Other studies among gutka users revealed that gutka was still available at a higher price and sold by vendors only to known customers 13 , 15 , 16 , Our study, among vendors, confirmed this. Our findings indicated the need to mobilize law enforcement system intensively to effectively stop the sale of all products banned under existing notification. Furthermore, existing notification should be further strengthened and made unambiguous to explicitly include all smokeless tobacco products to prevent switching from gutka to other ones.

Being based on self-reports, there was a risk of reporting bias by the interviewees. The possibility that there was underreporting of the sale of gutka by the vendor and overreporting of their support for ban due to social desirability cannot be completely ruled out.

Furthermore, since this study did not employ random sampling, its findings may not be representative of entire States. Conflicts of Interest : None. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Indian J Med Res. Gaurav Kumar , 1 M. Gupta 2. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Jan This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Methods: Twenty vendors were interviewed, 10 each in Mumbai Maharashtra and Indore Madhya Pradesh during May - June, , one year after ban was imposed. Results: All 20 vendors were aware that gutka sale was banned.

Keywords: Gutka ban, illegal tobacco product, public policy and public opinion, smokeless tobacco, tobacco vendors. Results Twenty vendors were approached, 10 each in Mumbai and Indore. Table Support of vendors for ban on smokeless tobacco products. Open in a separate window. Discussion The findings of this study complemented the findings of studies conducted among gutka users 13 , 15 , 16 , thereby providing a perspective on actual status of ban-enforcement at ground level.

References 1. International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans. Smokeless tobacco and some tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines. International Institute for Population Sciences. Smokeless tobacco and health in India and South Asia. Critchley JA, Unal B. A notification issued by West Bengal's health department said that the decision has been taken keeping in mind the health of the people.

It also said that the commissioner of food safety is empowered under Section 30 of the food safety and standards act, to impose such a ban on manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of any article of food in the entire state. The state governments usually earn a lot of tax revenue from the sale of these items.

However, in the interest of public health, many states across the country have gradually taken steps to ban gutkha and other products with nicotine. The Mamata Banerjee government had decided to ban gutkha, betel spice and several other tobacco products for the first time in In , the state government had banned khaini, gutkha and pan masala in West Bengal for one year.

Among men, Health authorities said the ban is under active consideration of the government. The government will soon take a decision," said director public health Dr Prasad Kumar Patnaik. Director health services Dr Tribikram Panda said a commissionerate of food safety will soon be notified as the nodal authority to implement the ban on gutka.

Anti-tobacco activists and experts said tobacco is the single largest cause of oral cancer in the state and its adulteration is substantially adding to the health risks.

The chemicals give extra texture to gutka. Follow us on. Living and entertainment iDiva MensXP. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service.