By the time the sun sets in India today, 3,300 Indians would have died due to tobacco use. In other words, cigarettes, gutka and other forms of tobacco kill some 1 million Indians annually. The cynicism of the tobacco industry is such that death and addiction rates as well as the necessity of new addicts are built into market access and India is a key growth area.Jobs are at stake is the government’s refrain. Approximately 70 lakh jobs against the health of 27 crore people in the country who are currently addicted to the product that kills one in two regular users. Every tobacco related death is preventable – you don’t catch a tobacco disease when you don’t consume it.In the middle of the last century Sir Richard Doll a British physiologist and epidemiologist unequivocally linked tobacco use to certain death. Since that ground-breaking scientific work evidence against the only freely available consumer product that kills one in two regular users has grown in leaps and bounds. Second-hand smoke is as dangerous – think of a 14 hour flight in a cabin full of smoke. The public health and economic answers are straightforward – tobacco is bad economics and disastrous for public health and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) progress has been thwarted by an industry whose tactics constitute the single largest hurdle to tobacco control. To address the politics of tobacco control and speak to policy makers comprehensively, the WHO concluded the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first legally binding treaty to address the tobacco menace.On the demand side, the FCTC proposes a price and tax increase, protection from exposure to second-hand smoke, regulation and disclosure of content of tobacco products, packaging and labeling, communication and training, comprehensive advertising and promotion bans. On the supply side the treaty proposes elimination of illicit trade of tobacco products, restriction of sales to minors and most importantly support for economically viable alternatives for tobacco growers. In India the worst hit are workers in the gutka sector who bear the double burden of poverty and disease.The vector that spread this disease is called the tobacco industry, in many cases in connivance with national governments strapped for cash, unconcerned or simply both. The tip of the iceberg is alarming. Through insurance companies and banks, the government of India holds an estimated 25 percent of shares in India Tobacco Company (ITC), the country’s biggest cigarette manufacturer. The President of India conferred the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 2012 Sustainability Award to ITC. India boasts of the successes of the Indian tobacco industry worldwide. In addition:The Ministry of Agriculture continues to make tobacco farming lucrativeThe Ministry of Home shows virtually no interest in enforcing anti-tobacco legislation.The Ministry of Education does not aggressively enforce laws to promote educational institutions to prevent The Ministry of Commerce nurtures the tobacco Board that promotes the growth of tobaccoThe Ministry children from exposure to tobacco advertising and addiction. An estimated 80 percent of tobacco shops do their best business outside schools and educational institutions.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is sympathetic to the film and television industry that bend laws to suit them rather than the society.Food and Drug authorities have shown extreme tolerance towards violation of the ban on gutka and tobacco containing pan masala. They are also resistant to the idea of recognising the harmful effects of the Betel and Areca nut.There is no publicly available independent documentation of tobacco industry activities in India. The Marlboro Man obviously has carte blanche to kill Indians. There are any number of bureaucrats including members of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) who take on lucrative assignments with Indian tobacco companies post-retirement. The ITC has branched out into food and other products including products used by school-children.Last April, the government citing lack of evidence decided to rescind deadline for increasing the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products dealing a cruel blow to public health efforts in the country. “All agree on the harmful effects of tobacco. But there is no Indian survey to prove that tobacco consumption leads to cancer. All the studies are done abroad. Cancer does not happen (sic) only because of tobacco. We have to study the Indian context as four crore people in states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh are dependent on bidi-making through Tendupatta,” Gandhi has told the media. Read here and here. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), this is what happens to people when they quit smoking.After 20 minutes your heart rate and blood pressure dropAfter 12 hours your blood’s carbon monoxide levels returns to normalAfter two or three weeks your circulation and lung function improvesAfter one to nine months coughing and shortness of breath dropsAfter one year your risk of heart disease is half that of a smokerAfter five years your risk of developing mouth and throat cancer halvesAfter 10 years the risk of dying from lung cancer is around half that of a smokerAfter 15 years the risk of heart disease is that of a non-smokerKick the butt on this WNTD. Your health will say thank you and your pocket will be happy. But, above all, you will contribute to hitting one of the world’s most corrupt and hazardous industries where it matters the most.*Chitra Subramaniam was head of policy analysis and communications at WHO’s tobacco control programme which negotiated the FCTC