By Mohankumar T
In this world, we the humans prevails here on this surface with some health issues that was there from the ancient periods. There are many viruses, bacteria and infections, etc are here which causes trouble to our body. For instance, the whole global has been affected by the corona virus where many people and countries have been affected by it and now, some variants of it are prevail in our society. Like this already, we are already dealing with these kinds of health hazards in our society. In this article, we are going to see the consequences of smoking, especially in public places which also cause health issues for non -smokers. We the people as a human have to make this issue as a priority over the other health hazarding issues because of the smokers who smoke in public places which affects the health of innocent people who are a non-smokers. Let’s discuss this smoking issue and its consequences in public with the aid of some statistics and cases.
SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES & IT’S CAUSES:
Smoking is the habit of using a tobacco or drug like substance by inhaling and exhaling it in the form of smoke in the environment. In most of the cases the person who is all using these substances are always used to be addictive, and some of the people will overcome it after consuming them regularly with the aid of rehabilitation, meditation, etc. This activity which increases the rate of loss of life in society, does not end here. The problem here is that the non-smokers who didn’t consume these stuffs are also affected equally to the active smoker in terms of health hazards. The inhalation of Second- hand Smoke (SHS) or Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) by the person causes “Passive Smoking” which is equally injurious to health. Our whole world has to fight against this problem because we have to see here that because of their bad habits in society, it affects the health of young people, infants, gravida and also all the people who smoke or not it doesn’t a matter here. If a person passes the smoke of a cigarette, snuffs, etc which is injuries to his health who smokes and also to the innocent who passes the smoke. This is ridiculous, if the wrongdoer or the offender can suffer for their act, why should an innocent baby, a youngster, gravida or not in specific everybody irrespective of their age or gender they are also going to be affected health wise. So we have to consider this issue also as a one of the important issues in our society.
TOBACCO USE AND TRENDS IN INDIA:
We all knew that India is the second most populated country in the world behind China that why India plays a vital role in the global market. Because of our population, goods and services are easily reachable due to our capacity of the consumer. In this case, tobacco is also more prevalent in India, where India is consists the second-largest number of tobacco users, as same as the population we are behind China in this regard. The population of India is 1.42 billion people (approx.) and the number of tobacco users is 267 million people, which is between 19-20% of our country’s population.
This is the approximate calculation of our country’s population distribution. In our study about these tobacco things, we got to know that the people in India who are all at the age of 15 and above are using tobacco substances like cigarettes, bidis, etc. so with the statistics, we can analyse that in the total population of our country if we reduce the population percentage of the people who are all below 15 years of age, which will be around 75% of our total population. Then, in the 75% of the total population, the contribution of the old age people is 7% of the population those people mostly won’t consume tobacco substances due to their age factor and also due to health conditions at this age mostly they won’t be fit to do these kinds of stuffs. So, we can assume that in the total population the active smokers will be within 70% of the population which consists of age between 15- 64. As we mentioned earlier that nearly 20% of the population consuming the tobacco products which is 285 million people.
The number of tobacco consuming population approx. 285 million people in our country. The Government of our country, both the union government and state governments have to take their steps to stop the illegal tobacco or drug substance prevailing in our society. Then they have to take precautionary measures to safeguard the innocent people who didn’t smoke but due to passing the way of the smokes in public places they are all also used to getting affected equally like an active smoker. I hope this is one of the big issues and also leads to a huge health hazard to the public. Both the wrongdoer and the innocent people will be affected equally, which means there is no justice or fairness in this issue. For this, our governments have to take proper measures to resolve it.
TOBACCO USE PREVALENCE IN INDIA:
LEGAL PROVISON IN INDIA TOWARDS PUBLIC SMOKING:
According to the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Items (Preclusion of Ads, Guidelines of Exchange and Trade, Creation, supply, and Dispersion) Act, 2003, provision 4 smoking in a public spot is restricted as per as Tobacco Act. For the office of reference, Section 4 of the Tobacco Act peruses as under:
"sec -4. Smoking in public places is against the law. No one is allowed to smoke in any public place. Given that in an inn having thirty rooms or an eatery having seating limit of thirty people or more and in the air terminals, a different arrangement for smoking region or space might be made."Discipline according to the provision 24 of the previously mentioned act - the wrongdoer will be culpable with the fine which may degree upto rs 200 and they will be indict according to the crpc technique.
CASE LAWS:
1. In the landmark case of Murli S. Deora v. Union of India[1], the Supreme Court held that public smoking and tobacco are major health hazards that directly and indirectly, led to lakhs of deaths and economic losses.
2. ASHOK KUMAR V. DIRECTOR GENREAL, HARYANA STATE TRANSPORT, in this case the justice said that the smoking is injurious to the health of the smoker as well as to non-smokers who are also affected to be helpless victims air of air pollution. In this case they also mentioned the governments, both the central and state governments, as to take effective measures to reduce public smoking. Public places like auditoriums, hospitals, health institution, education institutions, libraries, court buildings, etc.
Like this, in many case laws are there to speak about the public smoking but still, we can see that many of the smokers used to smoke in public places without any fear. So can we take it as ineffectiveness in the process of implementing the legislation as well as the court’s order. In this scenario, we badly need a proper implementation. In this matter, both the government and individuals have to make legislation and implementing it in a proper manner to protect the lives of millions of innocent people.
The second case above, they mentioned some places as public places that’s fine. But what about the roads and public platforms, the smokers are smoking independently without any fear or guilt. I think the legislature and judiciary have to look into this matter and provide proper resolution to these public hazard problems to the public. We all knew that in the eyes of the law an innocent can’t be punished, but in public places, without any mistake innocent people are affected without any reason.
SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE
30.2% of adults are exposed to second-hand smoke in indoor workplaces, 7.4% are exposed in restaurants, and 13.3% are exposed on public transportation.
21% of youth (ages 13–15) are exposed to second-hand smoke in enclosed public places, and 11% are exposed at home.
At home, itself people like children are affected by their parents themselves. I hope that parents are there to protect the children from the ill things but as you can see in the statistics, they clearly mentioned 11% exposed at home. Such things have no words to describe.
HEALTH CONSEQUENCES:
Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke kill about 1.2 million Indians each year.
India accounts for 70% of the global burden of smokeless tobacco.
Smokeless tobacco uses kills over 230,000 Indians each year.
Nearly 90% of oral cancers in India are attributable to smokeless tobacco use.
Bidi and cigarette smokers die 6 to 10 years earlier than their non-smoking counterparts.
27% of all cancers in India are attributable to tobacco use.
Almost 1.2 million people were losing their lives which includes both smokers and non-smokers in India alone. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), it says that yearly, due to consumption of tobacco products nearly 8 million people were passing away. The percentage of India’s contribution towards tobacco deaths is 15% in a year. By seeing the world even other countries also have to measure in reducing tobacco deaths in the world.
CRITICS:
According to health officials, the harmful effects of tobacco use are accepted and well documented globally. The use of tobacco is among the six to eight leading causes of death and of nearly 40% of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and lung disease. The number of deaths per year in India that are attributed to tobacco use is almost 800,000 to 900,000, officials said.
Dr. Kailas Baviskar, deputy director of health services, informed us that the central government has enacted COTPA in 2003 to protect the youth and the masses from the adverse effects of tobacco use and passive smoking. “The COTPA envisages protection of non-users from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke, which specifically finds mention in section 4 of the Act which prohibits smoking in public places including all public offices, workplaces, canteens etc. There is need for its effective implementation,” Dr Baviskar said.
“Spitting of tobacco etc. leads to the spread of swine flu, tuberculosis, and pneumonia and gastro-intestinal diseases. Tuberculosis bacilli can survive in the spit for an entire day which causes health problems to the public or nuisance to the people in general,” Dr Baviskar said.
WORLD HEALTH ORAGANISATION (WHO):
According to WHO reports, there are over 20 different types of cancer illnesses, as well as many debilitating health issues that cause illness either physically or mentally, weakening our bodies and brain functions. WHO clearly mentioned that tobacco can also be dangerous to non-smokers. Annually 1.2 million of secondhand smokers have been passed away and also, they additionally added that more than 65,000 children die each year. when the pregnant women smoke or inhale the smoke of tobacco which is a health hazard to the baby in the worm with several health illnesses during their birth itself.
A United nations organ clearly mentioned the illness due to the usage of tobacco products, which also causes health damage to non-smoker who are innocent without making any mistake. They are punished for what sake; I don’t know really. From this, we can deliberately view that there is a huge loop hole to take an effective step in this health hazard, which causes a huge death rate every year in India as well as around the globe.
CONCLUSION:
As a law student and, moreover as a human being, I would like to speak about this health hazard with which every people are prevailing in our society without any due care or precautionary measures. I am not here to say that we have to eradicate the tobacco product in our society. It is up to the individuals, just as no one has the right to kill somebody. This is what happening in our society in our day to day. If we go outside our residents, we can see how many irresponsible individuals are doing such activities without any guilt feeling. When a virus like COVID came into our society, we all took precautionary measures to overcome it. Like that, we have to fight and overcome this day-to-day health hazard by taking proper precautionary measures and also with proper execution or implementing the law in our society in a rigid manner. Because of this health hazard, we are losing many people each year. Why can’t we consider this health hazard as a major issue in our society?
BETTER CITIZENS, BETTER NATION.
The author of this article is Mohankumar T, a fourth-year B.C.A.LLB. student at School of Excellence in Law, Chennai (Dr. Ambedkar Law University).
[1] (2001) 8 SCC 765
References:
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