Breaking New Grounds in Tobacco Control - Voluntary Health ...

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tobacco. Adjusting the official poverty
level for this data, it is found that 14
million people are below the poverty
line but not counted. Non-smoked
tobacco and dual use are responsible
for 58%, 23%, and 19% of this increase
in poverty as a result of tobacco
expenditure, respectively.
18% of medical expenditure by rural
households and 17% of medical
expenditure by urban households
can be attributed to tobacco use.
Accounting for these tobacco-related
medical expenditure increased the
poverty level to 28.4% in rural India
and to 25.7% in urban India, meaning
that an additional 0.9 million people
should have been classified as poor.
The combined effect of both direct
tobacco purchases and tobaccoattributed
medical expenditure means
15 million people became poor
after accounting for tobacco use in
2005. These 15 million people were
Research 5
For the Millions
n 62
misclassified as being above the
poverty line.
Policy implications
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Poverty eradication is the first of the
eight MDGs and reducing tobacco use,
along with other strategies, can be a
very effective means of achieving this
goal. Regulating tobacco use is not only
a good public health policy, but also a
good poverty alleviation strategy.
As poor are relatively more responsive
to tobacco price increases than the
rich, one of the most effective tobacco
control measures is a price increase via
higher tobacco taxes.
Tax increase will reduce tobacco use
and free up money for the consumption
of essential goods and services such
as food, clothing, healthcare and
education, it will improve labour
productivity and will also increase the
earning potential of the family.
Tobacco Use in Bollywood Movies, Tobacco Promotional
Activities and their Association with Tobacco Use Among
Indian Adolescents
Monika Arora, Neha Mathur, Vinay K Gupta, Gaurang P Nazar, K Srinath Reddy, James D
Sargent, Tobacco Control, 2011, doi:10.1136/tc.2011.043539 [Open Access]
Background
Studies in developed countries have
established that exposure to smoking
in Hollywood movies leads to increased
risk of smoking among adolescents.
This was a cross-sectional study among
Indian school-going adolescents to study
whether exposure to tobacco use through
Bollywood movies is associated with youth
tobacco use.
Methodology
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A cross-sectional sample of 3956
adolescents (eighth and ninth grades,
ages 12 to 16 years) from 12 randomly
selected New Delhi schools was surveyed
in 2009, assessing tobacco use status,
receptivity to tobacco promotions
(based on owning or being willing to
wear tobacco-branded merchandise) and
exposure to tobacco use in movies.