The growing habit of chewing tobacco is taking thousands of lives worldwide, according to a new study.
The habit is especially prevalent in south-east Asia, including India.
The researchers from Hull York Medical School, UK, say smokeless tobacco is used in several British cities with Asian communities.
They obtained figures from 113 countries and linked the habit to more than 62,000 deaths from cancers of the mouth, pharynx and oesophagus. There were also more than 204,000 deaths from ischaemic heart disease.
The researchers say it is the first time the global health impact of smokeless tobacco has been calculated.
Researcher Dr Kamran Siddiqi said: "It is possible that these figures are underestimated and future studies may reveal that the impact is even bigger.
"We need a global effort to try and address and control smokeless tobacco."
He added: "Smokeless tobacco is used by almost a quarter of tobacco users and most of them live in South-East Asia. But even in this country there are communities in east London, Leicester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham using it.
"We have got no international policy on how to regulate the production, composition, sale, labelling, packaging and marketing of smokeless tobacco products.
"The international framework to control tobacco doesn’t seem to work to control smokeless tobacco.
Global burden of disease due to smokeless tobacco consumption in adults: analysis of data from 113 countries Biomed Central 17 August 2015 [abstract]
Leave a Reply