Kerala chapter of Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV) was launched here on Tuesday. VoTV, a campaign by Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, is a platform aimed at making victims of tobacco the public face of tobacco control movement in the state. Dr Paul Sebastian, Director, Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), inaugurated the Kerala chapter, in the presence of Dr A S Pradeep Kumar, Addl Director of Health Services, who also presided over the function. In his inaugural address, Dr Sebastian, also the president of VoTV Kerala State Chapter, called for collective efforts to rein in the use of tobacco in Kerala, which is a cause of many terminal diseases. “Combined action by policy makers, administrators, police, doctors and community leaders along with tobacco use victims will have a multiplier effect and go a long way in curbing tobacco use in Kerala,’’ he said and added that more than 40 percent of new male cancer patients every year are tobacco users. Delivering the presidential address, Dr Pradeep Kumar, also the Nodal Officer of Tobacco Control in Kerala, pointed out that though around 15 per cent of Keralites smoke, the total population faces the harms of tobacco through passive smoking. He added that the morbidity and mortality from tobacco use is very high. “The critical factor however is tobacco- induced diseases can be completely prevented. Every year lakhs of rupees are spent on treatment of cancers, which poses a heavy burden on the exchequer. In the interest of public health, it is very important that tobacco use be completed curtailed in Kerala,” Dr Kumar said. A few tobacco use victims shared their experiences and implored all to quit all forms of tobacco use. Varghese, who retired as a Police Circle Inspector, said: “I took to the habit to keep away during night patrolling and tobacco use made me cancer patient. It shattered my wife and two children,” he said.