Those who violate ban may be fined up to Rs 5 lakh or imprisoned up to six years After Madhya Pradesh, Kerala has now become the second state in India to ban all forms of chewing tobacco products. The state has banned the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of gutkha and pan masala, containing tobacco and nicotine, of all brands available in the market. The ban is effective from May 25. Like Madhya...

-The Hindu ‘Most cancer deaths are preventable if detected early' Contrary to the perception that cancer mortality is higher in urban areas, a recent study published in The Lancet said the death rate is similar in both urban and rural areas. The study, pointing to an interpretation that literacy can prevent cancer deaths, said mortality rates were two times higher in the least-educated than in the most-educated adults. Conducted between 2001 and 2003 —...

Nearly 138 million Indian smokers do not know that smoking tobacco causes stroke. As many as 92 million on the other hand aren't aware that tobacco causes heart disease. According to a report released on Friday by the World Heart Federation, half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian and Vietnamese smokers are unaware of the risks tobacco poses to our heart. Awareness of the risk of second-hand smoke is even lower. Around...

-The Telegraph   The Centre has decided to take the help of the church to minimise the use of tobacco in Mizoram, after it was found that the state was home to the highest number of tobacco users in the country. The chief medical officer of the directorate-general of health services, Jagdish Kaur, revealed this here today during the release of the northeastern region’s factsheet of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey at NEDFi...

-The Indian Express   Packets of tobacco products will have to carry new harsher pictorial warnings from December 1 as the government today came out with separate sets of gory graphics of cancer-affected lungs and mouth for smoking and smokeless forms of tobacco. The warnings will be rotated every two years instead of the existing duration of one year, apparently in keeping with a demand from the tobacco industry. The Union Ministry of...