the future of tobacco & nicotine - how common sense fails
TRANSCRIPT
HEMANT [email protected]
What Tobacco Does?
Annually Kills Over 5 Million Across The Globe – WHO Figures
Kills Around 1 Million (10 Lakh) People
Every Year in India – WHO Report
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What is Tobacco?
According to International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which
is a WHO body – Tobacco is a Group 1 CARCINOGEN (I.e. an agent which
sure shot causes cancer). It’s a cancer causing substance.
According to WHO “International Classification of Diseases,” Tobacco &
Tobacco Consumption is a Disease. Also Labelled in Mental Disorders.
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How Addictive is Nicotine?
Dr. Jack E. Henningfield of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Dr.
Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California at San Francisco ranked six
substances based on five problem areas. Where is Tobacco in it?
Substance Withdrawal Reinforcement Tolerance Dependence Intoxication
Nicotine 3 4 2 1 5
Heroin 2 2 1 2 2
Cocaine 4 1 4 3 3
Alcohol 1 3 3 4 1
Caffeine 5 6 5 5 6
Marijuana 6 5 6 6 4
1 = Most serious 6 = Least serious
HENNINGFIELD RATINGS
HEMANT [email protected]
How Addictive is Nicotine?
Tobacco is more addictive than Cocaine, Heroine, and many other drugs.
1 = Most serious 6 = Least serious
BENOWITZ RATINGS
Substance Withdrawal Reinforcement Tolerance Dependence Intoxication
Nicotine 3* 4 4 1 6
Heroin 2 2 2 2 2
Cocaine 3* 1 1 3 3
Alcohol 1 3 4 4 1
Caffeine 4 5 3 5 5
Marijuana 5 6 5 6 4
HEMANT [email protected]
What is Nicotine?
Nicotine is an extremely deadly
POISON[The fatal dose of Nicotine is 30mg. This means that 1 gm of Nicotine can kill
more than 30 people in less than 1 minute]
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Then Why Nicotine is Not Regulated?
The answer is – because of the
Tobacco Industry
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How?
The MSA documents of the tobacco industry available in the Legacy Library shows that the tobacco industry manipulated WHO and Governments to ensure that Nicotine is not included in the Pharmacopoeia. If it would have been included – it could be regulated as any other Drug.
[Pharmacopoeia is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society.]
HEMANT [email protected]
What I Did?
In 2004 while working to make Chandigarh the first smoke-free city of
India, I found tobacco industry documents strategizing that Nicotine
be kept out of Pharmacopoeia.
I decided that the right place for Nicotine is not Pharmacopoeia but
‘Poisons’ list.
I filed a Writ Petition in the High Court in 2007 alongside other strategies.
Argued in the court that Nicotine is a poison – listed as an insecticide
and also as a hazardous chemicals
Argued that it be included in the poisons list.
HEMANT [email protected]
What Happened?
Court accepted my arguments and logic.
All Hookah/Sheesha Bars serving Nicotine laced material were closed
down.
Many FIR’s (Criminal Cases) were registered and action against people
selling Nicotine laced material were registered.
AND
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What Happened?
For first time anywhere in the world – three States, by notification under the
Poisons Act declared and classified Nicotine to be a
Poison[States of Punjab, Haryana & Chandigarh notified Nicotine to be POISON]
HEMANT [email protected]
Questions I Ask You?
Is it logical to sell/ market/ promote or patronise a substance which is
labelled as;
a.) Carcinogenic – i.e. Cancer Causing Agent
b.) Disease
c.) Poison
And for which we have sufficient evidence that it causes death of over 5
million people every year. Year-after-year!
HEMANT [email protected]
Let’s Use Our Common Sense!
It’s no rocket science!
Tobacco Has No Place in a Civilised Society
Common sense - straight forward approach is enough for phasing-out tobacco from this world. There is no possibility that tobacco can coexist with a healthy future.
