Jalandhar district declared as 17th 'tobacco smoke free' district of Punjab

Chandigarh, February 1, 2014: In its continued pursuit to protect people of Punjab from harmful effects of second hand smoke in public places, Punjab’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani today formally declared Jalandhar district as 'Tobacco smoke free’. Sixteen Districts have already been declared so on the basis of compliance study by School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh. He said that 40% of all types of Cancers and 90% of oral Cancers are attributed to Tobacco usage. He said efforts are being made to make the entire state Tobacco-smoke free, soon.
Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health, Family Welfare & Medical Education, Punjab congratulated the District Administration of Jalandhar and State Tobacco Control Cell, Punjab for their consistent efforts in this regard. She revealed that School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh was entrusted with the task of conducting a Compliance survey and Opinion poll to verify the compliance of COTPA Act, 2003 (Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products Act). Dr Sonu Goel, Assistant Prof., School of Public Health , PGIMER, Chandigarh, has in his report concluded that, absence of active smoking and presence of signages was observed in more than 87.6% of public places in districts Jalandhar paving way for declaration of 17th Smoke Free district.
Dr. Karanjit Singh, Director, Health Services, Punjab added that prior to Jalandhar, other districts that had earlier been declared as tobacco-smoke free included Ajitgarh (Mohali), Mansa, Amritsar, Roopnagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib,Gurdaspur, Sangrur, Bathinda,Sri Muktsar Sahib, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Patiala and Faridkot. Dr. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, State Program Officer, Tobacco Control Cell Punjab said that consistent efforts are being made to make entire Punjab 'Tobacco Smoke Free' in a phased manner. It is very important to protect people from harmful effects of the tobacco smoke, inadvertently inhaled by the non smokers.// punjab news live, punjab news online, punjab news, punjab news headlines, punjab breaking news, india news, punjab news, world news,

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