On the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, the Rajasthan government banned all pan masala and flavoured tobacco products. Rajasthan is the third state to impose such a ban this year after Bihar and Maharashtra.
The government also plans to investigate the samples for magnesium, carbonate, nicotine and mineral oil. If the products contain any of these substances, they will be seized by the government.
The government has banned the production, storage, distribution, transportation, demonstration, and sale these items under the Food Security Act. The government had already banned e-cigarettes, hookah-bars, and tobacco-based gutkha. However, the pan masala companies were selling tobacco and pan masala separately after the ban was imposed. Since the ban remained unsuccessful and people consumed the substances; nonetheless, the government has now put a blanket ban on all such substances.
According to the government, every year, thousands of people in Rajasthan lose their lives to cancer caused due to consumption of tobacco. The is believed that the decision will help reduce the number of cancer patients in the state.
Gutkha Ban In Maharashtra, Bihar
Maharashtra was the first state to implement the Centre directive to ban the sale of tobacco. The move was made to safeguard the exposure of harmful substances by children, especially belonging to the lower strata and slum areas.
Bihar outlawed the production, sale, transport, and storage of any type of food containing tobacco or nicotine. Under this initiative, Bihar government banned 12 companies’ – Rajnigandha, Raj Niwas, Supreme Pan Parag, Pan Parag, Bahar, Bahubali, Rajshree, Raunak, Signature, Paisan, Kamala Pasand and Madhu Pan Masala.
In India, every year, there are 1 lakh new cases of oral cancer in which 50 per cent die within 12 months in which consumption of gutkha remains the most harmful of all. The mixture is a combination of 4,000 chemicals of which at least 40 are carcinogenic compounds.
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