WORLD CANCER DAY-Feb 4, 2020
By Dr. Caleb Harris M.Ch.(Surgical Oncology)
Most of Northeast India was on the boil recently, with protests continuing in several places against the possibility of ‘infiltrators’ becoming citizens of this great nation. Various reasons may be attributed to the unwillingness to accept ‘illegal’ people from other countries, such as, lack of opportunities for employment, potential need to share the already limited resources, impact on local culture and language, etc. It is important to understand the effect of such ‘foreign’ practices on our culture.
The Government of India must be lauded for its effort to prevent one such corrupting influence on our society, which was again brought about by an ordinance, which was later discussed in parliament and passed as a law. The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019 came into force on the 18th day of September, 2019.
E-cigarettes are electronic devices that heat a substance, with or without nicotine and flavours to create an aerosol for inhalation which a user can inhale like the action of smoking. All forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn products, e-Hookahs and the like devices are included. Owing to their sleek and attractive design and the use of flavours that mask the smell and ease of concealment, they have grown tremendously in popularity especially among the young. E-cigarette solutions and emissions are known to contain harmful chemicals which are hazardous and some of whom considered to be toxicants.
Though the e-cigarette manufacturers were not too happy about this act, the government could easily thwart their attempts at opposing this law because most of these manufacturers were foreign companies. While it is argued that e-cigarettes are ‘less harmful’ than smoking tobacco and hence should be allowed, one needs to understand that inhaling highly concentrated nicotine could affect us, as evidenced by the death of some youngsters in the USA. They developed severe respiratory problems due to smoking e-cigarettes and eventually succumbed. Those supporting e-cigarettes were portrayed as stooges of the foreign companies who were out to earn profits at the expense of the health of Indians.
However, the government has been unable to ban a similar ‘infiltrator’ which is responsible for many cancer cases in our country, and much more in Northeast India. One in two persons in Meghalaya use this and up to two-thirds of cancers in the Northeast are caused by this infiltrator.
While ‘smoking’ was prevalent in the Indian sub-continent since 2000 B.C., it was not tobacco, but cannabis which was smoked. Portuguese merchants were the first to introduce tobacco, in Goa, about 400 years ago, following which tobacco was popularised by the British, during the 17th century. Christopher Columbus found the ‘strange leaves’ in the New World, of the plant Nicotina tobacum, and within 150 years, its use spread all over the world. Indians naively welcomed this ‘infiltrator’ and as a result suffer ill health and death caused by it.
Whenever there is an effort by the government to reduce the tobacco production, the ‘poor’ tobacco farmers protest, claiming that they cannot cultivate anything other than tobacco! Even as consumption of tobacco is reducing globally, the cigarette manufacturers are finding newer ways and markets to sell their products.
World cancer day, observed on February 4th annually, is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control(UICC), which is based in Switzerland. 2020 is the second year of the 3-year ‘I Am and I Will’ campaign, which is an empowering call-to-action urging for personal commitment and represents the power of individual action taken now to impact the future.
Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances, thanks to the presence of nicotine. While nicotine can cause cancer in high doses, tobacco has several other ‘carcinogens’(cancer causing agents). It is important to ensure that youngsters do not get into the habit of using tobacco as stopping its use is not very easy. Subsequently the incidence of cancer will surely reduce over the years. This is the personal commitment which each individual has to make this world cancer day, and thereby push this harmful infiltrator from our region.
The writer is Associate Professor and i/c, Department of Surgical Oncology, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong. Views expressed are personal)