A city-based advocate has sought a Madras High Court direction to the State government to prohibit the manufacture and sale of tobacco and nicotine consumable products, including pan masala and gutka, in the interest of public health.

In the public interest litigation, P.T.Geotom of George Town said tobacco was used by nearly 1.1 billion people and up to one-third of the adult population in the world. The WHO had said that tobacco consumption was the leading preventable cause of death. Tobacco consumption caused 5.4 million deaths per year. In India, there were nearly 275 million tobacco users and every year about one million people died.