Jaipur
Amidst the corona pandemic, the State government should totally prohibit smoke and smokeless tobacco in Rajasthan. Dr Pawan SInghal, Professor, ENT Department, Sawai Man Singh Hospital, wrote a letter to Chief Minster Shri Ashok Gehlot in this regard. He said spitting smokeless tobacco plays an important role in spreading corona infection.
Dr Singhal said that Shri Gehlot has asked people not to consume and spit smokeless tobacco in public places. Chief Minister told spitting in public places is a crime in European and Gulf countries and heavy penalty is imposed on such people, which changed their habit. ENT expert said that the intention of the State government is that people of Rajasthan too should not spit anywhere in public places after consuming tobacco, paan masala or paan.
The ENT expert said that if a corona infected person spits tobacco, the saliva can spread infection within 24-72 hours, which could prove dangerous to the people. Therefore, Dr Singhal has demanded Shri Gehlot to ban tobacco and tobacco products in the State.
He said that every year around 13 lakh people die in the country including 65,000 people in Rajasthan due to the diseases attributed to consumption of tobacco. The expenses on treating tobacco related diseases are three times more than the revenue earned by selling tobacco products. Throwing cigarette and biri butts, tobacco and paan masala packing and spitting make roads dirty and also pose serious threat of spreading infections and diseases.
Dr Singhal in his letter mentioned that chewing tobacco is very dangerous in the present corona pandemic as it increases the possibility of infection.
He once again requested the Chief Minister to totally ban the production, storage and selling of all tobacco products, so that diseases and untimely deaths caused due to its consumption could be stopped.
