“It's easier not to start but extremely difficult to give up once addicted to tobacco” Dr. Ravi Kannan

Legendary actor Uttam Kumar was seen vaping ‘O’ rings in the iconic Bengali feature film ‘Nayak’ directed by Academic Awards (Oscar) recognised Satyajit Ray. Kumar was doing his job, playing a character that his script demanded him to. But, while doing so, he made smoking look like a glamourous act of sophistication. Kumar and Nayak is just an example, cigarette and smoking have remained a style-statement in films all over the world. Be it Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ or Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Don’, the way the lead characters light, smoke, ash and stub the cigarette is followed by millions. One of the recognised names in filmmaking fraternity David Bryne puts it nicely to explain the reality. His famous quote states, “The true face of smoking is disease, death, and horror – not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.”

While there are thousands of acts and ads that will urge one to start smoking a cigarette or a hookah or even chew some pan masala by claiming to bring the ‘world on consumer’s feet’ (Kadmo mein duniya) there is one ‘World No Tobacco Day’ observed all across on May 31 every year. This year too several organisations all over the world did many awareness campaigns to explain the hazardous side of consuming tobacco.

In all three districts of Barak Valley too, ‘No Tobacco Day’ was observed with district administrations putting additional efforts to generate awareness. One man in Silchar who deals with the Tobacco-caused diseases the most is doctor Ravi Kannan. Kannan is a surgical oncologist and was heading the surgical department prestigious Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai. He left everything there and shifted to Silchar with his family in order to help people suffering from Cancer in this region.

Kanan who is the backbone of Cachar Cancer Hospital spoke to senior journalist Biswakalyan (Tilak) Purkayastha yesterday while observing the day. Kannan believes observing “World No Tobacco Day” is a very important aspect of the tobacco control programme,“Tobacco is the single largest cause of premature death anywhere in the world. It causes, cancer, cardiac diseases, lung diseases and many other deadly diseases. Anything that can curb down the consumption of tobacco is a welcome step.”

In context to Barak Valley, Kannan feels the consumption of tobacco is very high in Barak Valley, “As per my estimate more than 80% of the population (in Barak Valley) consume tobacco. Every year we see a very high number of patients suffering from tobacco-related cancer. We do not have any data to find how many strokes, heart attacks, cardiovascular diseases are caused due to tobacco but I am sure those would be very high too,” doctor Kannan opined.

But, it is not all negative as per the former Adyar Cancer Institute practitioner, “The positive part is Barak Valley only has a population of 40 lakh which means any reform we want to bring in, we can quickly establish it. While it is adversity, we must turn it into opportunity. While we have plenty of problems we also have the opportunity to quickly turn things around,” he said.

Kannan was asked if the Governments be it state or Central could play a bigger role in restricting the consumption of tobacco. To which he replied, “The Government can do plenty! It can enforce taxes, it can enforce law, Government can ensure all government institutions are tobacco-free, it can ensure that all schools are tobacco-free and there are plenty more that it can do to control consumption.”

Kannan concluded the conversation with a message for the youth, “Never get into a habit of tobacco. It is easier not to start but extremely difficult to give up once addicted. Stay away from tobacco to stay healthy.”