Indian Dental Association & Voice of Tobacco Victim campaign
The industry uses diverse mediums for advertisements, promotion and sponsorship tactics to directly influence users for tobacco use or new users to start using it. It also portrays a positive influence or showcase doing good by skillful blending real life scenarios with tobacco.
It attributes by:-
• Showcasing tobacco use as customary and glamorous.
• Segmented and targeting vulnerable groups youth, women by deceptive and misleading descriptors and advertisements.
• Sponsoring Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Why tobacco industries do it?
Attract new tobacco users
Increase the amount of consumption among current tobacco users
Reduce a tobacco user’s willingness to quit
Encourage former user to start the habit again
Our nation has the dubious distinction of harboring the highest burden of mouth cancer in the world and we are called “oral cancer capital of the world”. Apart from mouth cancers, smokeless tobacco use is one of the major risk factor for periodontal diseases. The burden of diseases caused by tobacco use results in loss of livelihood of not only the individuals but the entire family and country is at loss.
Our younger generation needs to be protected against the menace of tobacco. Every day about 5,500 children start the tobacco habit in India. The age of initiation is as low as 8 years. We the dentists, who are responsible for the oral health, are extremely worried about rising trends of mouth cancer especially amongst the youth. This epidemic is the result of rampant use of Tobacco and Areca nut in different forms. The industry promotes tobacco use by giving free sample, sale at discount price, promoting it in the youth centric festival or cultural programmers’. Even at the point of sale the tobacco packets are placed next to chocolates or confectionary.
Indian Dental Association & Voice of Tobacco Victims urge our government to prohibit any such advertisements and promotion of tobacco product to save the millions of youths of our country from being a victim of tobacco.
“Our Youths are Future in the Hands of Government”
For more information, kindly contact:-
Dr. G. Selvaraj, Hon. State Secretary, Indian Dental association, Port Blair. Mob- 09732472777. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Kunal, Voice of Tobacco Victim. Mob- 9930011249. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.