HYDERABAD: Every year, May 31 is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) to help spread awareness on the ill-effects of tobacco consumption. This year’s theme is ‘effects of tobacco on lung health’.According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2018 report, smoking tobacco in India has dropped from 19.4% in 2000, to 11.5% in 2005. In its report, the WHO had also anticipated much more reduction in smoking in the coming years. However, on the contrary, incidence of lung cancer is rising among the smokers, says doctors.
Doctors claim that the number of lung cancer cases among youth and women in the age group 30-35 are on the rise. Dr Jayalatha Nethagani, director of State-run MNJ Cancer Hospital says, “Previously, lung cancer was prevalent in the age group of 50 and above. However, with rising pollution levels, there has been a substantially increase in lung cancer patients, who are in the age group 3o and above,” she said.
What is tertiary smoking?
While explaining different types of smoking that leads to cancer, she said, “Currently, of the patients, who are undergoing treatment at MNJ hospital, at least one in every four patients is in the age group of 30-40. While many blame active and passive smoking for lung cancer, researchers have also diagnosed another type of smoking - tertiary - that can affect people, who might have not even smoked tobacco.”
“In layman term, the toxic residues that linger on indoor surfaces and in dust long after a cigarette has been extinguished. They are carcinogenic and when these carcinogenis particles settle in our surrounding objects, like car interiors, plants and can also reach human bodies via touch,” she added.
Meanwhile, Dr Vamshi Krishna, a senior oncologist from a reputed private hospital, talking about increasing lung cancer cases among women, says “There has been a steady rise in cigarette smoking among women. This has increased the cases of lung and oral cancer among them. Another trend that has been noticed is the shift from adenocarcinomas cancer to squamous cancer.”
He further pointed out that the male to female ratio of tobacco related cancers have gone up from 9:3 to 9:5.According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in Telangana, out of the 17.8 per cent of people, who consume tobacco, 25.9 per cent are men and 9.8 per cent are women.
G Sandhya Padma, a senior counsellor at MNJ Hospital’s Tobacco Cessation Centre, one of the 18 government cessation centres across the country, explains that prevention and early detection has a higher chance of curing tobacco-related cancers.