The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) yesterday said that the authorities should increase the prices of cigarettes and alcohol as it would discourage people from smoking and drinking alcohol.
NATA Chairman Dr. Samadhi Rajapaksa said if authorities take a decision to increase the prices of cigarettes and alcohol it will greatly help to protect future generations.
Dr. Rajapaksa made these remarks at a meeting held to coincide with the World No Tobacco Day which falls on May 31.
He said the sole objective of commemorating the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ is to discourage cigarette smokers, especially young children, throughout the world.
He said NATA is playing a major role by conducting various awareness programmes not only during this period, but always, with the objective of discouraging all sections of society from smoking. Dr. Rajapaksa said that NATA’s sole intention is to eliminate the smoking and alcohol menace from Sri Lanka. Quoting statistics Dr. Rajapaksa said that globally over seven million deaths every year are due to smoking, and nearly 1.2 million deaths are due to passive smoking.
He said in Sri Lankan early 80 percent of smokers belong to low and middle income groups.
“It is also reported that over 13,000 Sri Lankans die every year due to smoking and using tobacco related products,” he said. Dr. Rajapaksa said cigarettes are used in two forms. They are smoked from cigarettes which generate smoke and cigarettes that do not generate smoke. According to researches there are nearly 300 million smokeless tobacco users in the world and most of them live in South East Asia.
Meanwhile the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2016 says around 315,000 deaths globally are due to smokeless tobacco products, while tobacco caused 30 percent of cancers worldwide.
Dr. Rajapksa further said tobacco causes cancers in the mouth, lungs, liver, stomach, kidneys, bowel and cervix.
He said smoked tobacco contains about 7,000 chemicals that are harmful to the body while smokeless tobacco contains carcinogens and nicotine which are also harmful.
“Oral cancers and lung cancers are the two other common cancers among Sri Lankan males and they are associated with tobacco use,” he said.
According a recent survey, smokeless tobacco, using arecanut products and smoking with excess alcohol are also considered as main risk factors.
The Sri Lanka Cancer Society too renders an invaluable service to discourage people, especially schoolchildren who are addicted to tobacco smoking. The Society annually conducts seminars, exhibitions and essay and poster competitions at public and private educational institutions and public and private sector institutions.
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