-The Telegraph Guwahati: Assam today took a step towards becoming the first state in the country to ban all smokeless tobacco products with the state government tabling a bill in the Assembly to this effect. The Assam Health (Prohibition of Manufacturing, Advertisement, Trade, Storage, Distribution, Sale and Consumption of Zarda, Gutkha, Panmasala, etc, Containing Tobacco) Bill, 2013, which was introduced in the Assembly by health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,...

-The Hindu Clamping down on tobacco use, with measures such as tripling taxes on cigarettes and bidis, could cut by a quarter the deaths from heart disease and stroke that occur in India over the next decade, according to a modelling study just published in PLOS Medicine. Over nine million lives could be saved between 2013 and 2022 by vigorously implementing tobacco control policies in this country, say Sanjay Basu of Stanford...

-PTI   India could prevent over nine million deaths due to cardiovascular disease over the next decade if it implements Smoking bans and levy higher tobacco taxes, a new study has found. Smoke-free laws and increased tobacco taxes would yield substantial and rapid health benefits by averting future cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths, researchers said. "Smoke-free legislation has not been consistently implemented, one in three adults reported being exposed to Smoking at work in 2009...

-The United Nations One in three people is now covered by at least one life-saving measure to limit tobacco use, according to a United Nations report which highlights the progress over the past five years of reducing potential smokers through advertising bans and awareness campaigns. According to the report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013, the number of people covered by bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship increased by almost 400...

-The Hindu There has to be a national mission to ensure that rural homes have access to clean cooking fuel and stoves instead of the killer chulhas that are claiming the lives of large numbers of women A large section of our country's population, nearly 75 per cent of rural and 22 per cent of urban households, still uses biomass for daily cooking. An estimated 80 per cent of the residential energy...