India launches first anti-smoking center

A quarter of India's population are tobacco users

NEW DELHI, India -- India has launched its first anti-smoking center on Thursday, World No-Tobacco Day.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Indian Health Ministry see 10 centers opening in cancer hospitals across the country by the end of the year, said Dr. T. Walia, public health minister at WHO India.

Counseling and drug prescription will be provided at the centers. "If need be, we will back it up with drugs like nicotine patches to help the users kick the habit," said Vineet Gill Munish, national consultant to WHO.

In a bid to lower cigarette-related deaths, India anounced plans earlier this year to ban smoking in public places and the sponsorship of sporting events by tobacco firms.

It also announced plans for legislation to end sponsorship of cultural events by cigarette and tobacco product companies.

The bill would also ban the sale of tobacco products to people below the age of 18 and oblige companies to put nicotine and tar content warnings in English and Hindi, India's national language, on packaging.

Of India's 29 states, smoking in public places has been banned only in four, Delhi being one of them.

245 million smokers

The harmful effects of tobacco use have become an increasing topic of concern among Indian policymakers and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government.

According to WHO estimates, India has around 245 million tobacco users, about a quarter of the nation's population.

About eight million people die of tobacco-related diseases in the country every year.

According to government estimates, treatment of tobacco-related disease in India costs 135.17 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) a year, far more than the nationwide sale value of all tobacco products.

Walia said that of India's tobacco users, only 20 percent smoked cigarettes, whereas 40 percent chewed tobacco and 40 percent smoked bidis.

Bidis are unfiltered cigarettes filled with finely flaked tobacco bundled in a fuzzy leaf and bound with a colored thread.

Reuters contributed to this report.