Odisha rings in 2013 with gutka ban
BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday announced a ban on the sale and manufacture of gutka and paan masala. With this, Odisha joined 18 other states having similar prohibition on tobacco in food products.
Declaring the curbs, health minister Damodar Rout said the government would issue required notification under the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011, in two to three days. "I am happy to announce on the New Year that chief minister Naveen Patnaik has approved the ban on edible tobacco. The step will be good for the health of hundreds of people," the minister said.
Rout said the government would implement the regulations with all sincerity. However, its success would also depend on awareness and alertness among people. He requested people to shun gutka voluntarily for their own health and for effective implementation of the ban.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a statutory body under the Union health ministry to handle food-related issues, notified the new regulations on August 1, 2011. States and UTs which have already implemented the FSSAI regulations are Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana, Mizoram, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh. Goa had already clamped a ban under its State Public Health Act much before the FSSAI regulations were penned.
Under rule (234) of the FSSAI regulation, "Food products will not contain any substance which may be injurious to health: Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food product". Madhya Pradesh was the first state to implement the FSSAI regulation, 2011, on April 1 last year.
Doctors and anti-tobacco activists across the state welcomed the move. "The step will save many lives. It will bring down cases of oral cancer and prevent crores of rupees from going down the drain," said Dr Ghanashyam Biswas, a noted oncologist in the city.
"It is a welcome step. The success of the initiative will depend on how systematically the government implements the ban," said Itishree Kanungo, an anti-tobacco activist. "The ban should have come earlier. But better late than never," said Abhinash Thakur, an activist of anti-tobacco organization Nishamukti Yuva Sankalp, which had filed a PIL in the Orissa High Court seeking such a ban.
Gutka ban has serious implication for Odisha as the annual health survey (AHS) 2011 found the state having highest percentage of tobacco chewers among the nine surveyed states. Odisha with 38% tobacco chewers in the above 15 years age group is ahead of Assam (36.6%), Chhattisgarh(32.5%), Jharkhand (24.1%), Bihar (22.5%), Uttar Pradesh (21%), MP (18.9%), Uttarakhand(8.8%) and Rajasthan (6.9%), the government survey had said.
Declaring the curbs, health minister Damodar Rout said the government would issue required notification under the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011, in two to three days. "I am happy to announce on the New Year that chief minister Naveen Patnaik has approved the ban on edible tobacco. The step will be good for the health of hundreds of people," the minister said.
Rout said the government would implement the regulations with all sincerity. However, its success would also depend on awareness and alertness among people. He requested people to shun gutka voluntarily for their own health and for effective implementation of the ban.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a statutory body under the Union health ministry to handle food-related issues, notified the new regulations on August 1, 2011. States and UTs which have already implemented the FSSAI regulations are Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana, Mizoram, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh. Goa had already clamped a ban under its State Public Health Act much before the FSSAI regulations were penned.
Under rule (234) of the FSSAI regulation, "Food products will not contain any substance which may be injurious to health: Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food product". Madhya Pradesh was the first state to implement the FSSAI regulation, 2011, on April 1 last year.
Doctors and anti-tobacco activists across the state welcomed the move. "The step will save many lives. It will bring down cases of oral cancer and prevent crores of rupees from going down the drain," said Dr Ghanashyam Biswas, a noted oncologist in the city.
"It is a welcome step. The success of the initiative will depend on how systematically the government implements the ban," said Itishree Kanungo, an anti-tobacco activist. "The ban should have come earlier. But better late than never," said Abhinash Thakur, an activist of anti-tobacco organization Nishamukti Yuva Sankalp, which had filed a PIL in the Orissa High Court seeking such a ban.
Gutka ban has serious implication for Odisha as the annual health survey (AHS) 2011 found the state having highest percentage of tobacco chewers among the nine surveyed states. Odisha with 38% tobacco chewers in the above 15 years age group is ahead of Assam (36.6%), Chhattisgarh(32.5%), Jharkhand (24.1%), Bihar (22.5%), Uttar Pradesh (21%), MP (18.9%), Uttarakhand(8.8%) and Rajasthan (6.9%), the government survey had said.
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