Director, Tobacco Institute of India It provides livelihood to 27 million people

Preventable loss of life A NEW study has found that Indians are more susceptible to the harmful effects of tobacco and that the addiction is set to claim an overwhelming 10 lakh lives a year from 2010. No less a figure than Professor Amartya Sen has called for "immediate public action' to stem deaths from what he rightly calls an "entirely preventable' cause.

The health and economic implications of tobacco merit review

Denis Fernander, Ribandar It cost A. Sharfudeen, a Tamilian, his voice box to realize that smoking is dangerous to health. Mr. Sharfudeen lost his voice box to smoking after a larynxectomy necessitated for removal of cancerous cell on his larynx. Now, he tours entire country to campaign against perils using tobacco and causing awareness among the youth, especially in educational campuses.

Even more than tempting liquors like tequila, tobacco is a pleasure that the Old World wishes it had never taken from the New. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus was met by tribesmen with "fruit, wooden spears and certain dried leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance', he threw the last gift away. But his shipmates brought home the custom of sucking in the smoke, and the taste spread so rapidly that in 1604 King James I of England was prompted to issue a denunciation of the "manifold abuses of this vile custome'.

An increasing number of teenagers in India is taking to tobacco and nearly one million people die every year due to tobacco-related illnesses, says a new study by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report titled