Tobacco Intervention Initiative (TII) is a professionally-led "call to action" programme to eradicate tobacco addiction. Intending for a `tobacco free India' by the year 2020. Tobacco in any form adversely affects the health, causing chronic and debilitating diseases like heart disease, stroke, multiple cancers and respiratory diseases, as well as complications of pregnancy such as pre-term delivery and low infant birth weight.
TII aims to establish a broad alliance of key influencers and policy makers from research, education, clinical practice, public health, government and industry, partnering for a common goal --- behavioral and lifestyle changes for a healthy India.
TII is essential to reduce the mortality and morbidity related to tobacco usage. We all are aware that tobacco addiction is dangerous as it kills 15 times as many people as suicides, murder or mans laughter.
Worldwide tobacco related deaths are 560 people every hour, 13,440 people per day and 49 lakh people per annum. It has been projected by World Health Organisation (WHO) that globally by 2050, if the focus is only on prevention and not cessation, the result will be an additional 160 million deaths. The Indian government too acknowledges that the country is facing a smoking epidemic that is likely to cause up to 1 million deaths every year.
A survey suggested that one in three adults in India smokes or chews tobacco, very few quit and second-hand smoke remains a big problem, exposing gaps in the country’s tobacco control efforts. The mammoth scale of tobacco consumption results in colossal burden of diseases and deaths leading to catastrophic health, social, economic and environmental effects.
Mammoth scale of consumption: Total tobacco consumption in the country is 4,300 lakh kg. 2,320 lakh kg in the form of bidi, 1160 lakh kg through chewing tobacco, gutkha and snuff, 820 lakh kg through cigarettes. Annually tobacco worth Rs. 24,000 crore is sold and the government spends Rs. 27,000 crore on free health services to counterbalance the harm it causes.
Addiction status in India: In India 14 crore men and 4 crore women are addicted to tobacco, states the health ministry. The result is that 1 out of 10 Indian adults’ dies of tobacco related diseases which is 9 lakh people per year nearly 2,200 per day, die every year in India due to tobacco- related diseases. The reason is that about 250 million people in India use tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis. Over 16% are cigarette smokers and 44% smoke bidis. The health ministry estimates that by 2020, tobacco will be responsible for 13% of all deaths in India and estimated that without any intervention, more than 38.4 million bidi smokers and 13.2 million cigarette smokers are likely to die prematurely.
Gutka use on the rise: Due to easy availability and low pricing, children begin consuming gutka, while they are still in school. 4 million children, below the age of 15 years, regularly use tobacco. There are teens who per day consume 5 to 15 packets of gutka.
Increase in tobacco usage among women: There is an increase in frequency of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption among females. Women who consume 3 cigarettes per day are at the risk of falling prey to heart attacks as well as death from other causes. Mishri use, which is common in women, can lead to low birth weight babies. Paan chewing among women in India has made oral cancer more common than breast cancer.
India has highest incidence of oral cancer in the world: Are you aware that one third of all oral cancer patients in the world are in India? Tobacco chewing has made cancer of the head and neck the No. 1 cancer in India. 90% of oral cancer cases are caused by tobacco products. In India, 40% of the cancers are mouth and related types. Tobacco use is estimated to account for about 41% of oral/pharyngeal cancer cases in men, and 11% in women.
Tobacco interventions needs to address chewers, as well as smokers. Elders and adolescents require special interventions.
Tobacco Free India \ Healthy India
Our mission is to improve public health by discouraging tobacco usage.We aim to accomplish our mission by:
Coordinating participants for a healthy India.
Scientific approach
Trust
Society
We translate and convey the advances and progress to health professionals, professional organisations, and the public through organized efforts.
Dental expertise: Tobacco usage causes significant changes in a person's mouth (as a periodontal diseases or oral cancer). The dentist are specialist of the oral cavity, who are the first line of defense in early detection of diseases. Here, the Indian Dental Association (IDA) an association of dentists is best equipped to deal with all complications related to the oral cavity. They are professionally trained to diagnose abnormal conditions associated with or caused by tobacco use. Counseling by dentist helps the patient understand the deleterious effects of continued tobacco usage. This knowledge about the adverse effects helps patients in quitting tobacco. Therefore, the dentist must be trained about the five major steps for intervention (the "5 A's": Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange).
Benefit to practice: Dentist too benefit from participation in IDA's TII, because it provides them a positive work environment. Successful practice revolves around satisfied patients and lasting relationships. Quality of life and longevity increases when dentists provide tobacco cessation advice. Along with the primary goal of modern dentistry (preserving oral structures), dentists can simultaneously save lives( the ultimate in service) in collaboration with TII. This increases the respect and recognition of the dentist.
Sustaining the uniqueness: IDA provides a multidisciplinary task-force (diverse professional groups) with the dentist assuming the central role. This imparts a uniqueness to the cessation programme whereby IDA assumes the leadership role for cooperation and coordination.
Addressing disparities: Lower income groups are the most addicted to tobacco, as they lack education, awareness about the adverse effects of tobacco usage, plus they do not have funds for treatment. Dentists at TII Centres by their counseling and intervention can to a large extent curtail the resultant morbidity and mortality due to tobacco usage.
Our goal is creating an healthy nation by tobacco–free India. We are committed to reducing tobacco usage in all form by counseling by dentists at TCC Centre.
TCC Centre are certified dental clinics where the dentist offer counseling at individual, group level, behavior therapy, self-help materials, educational CDS and books along with Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT).
These clinics form the supportive infrastructure for tobacco cessation, where the dentist is a trained tobacco intervention professional. Your search for tobacco de-addiction can end at the dental clinic.
Professional workforce: Researchers, educators and dental practitioners should be trained for prevention and intervention counseling about the adverse effects of tobacco. Under- represented minority dentists play an important role as they have better access to under-served and minority populations. They can influence other oral health professionals to be culturally more sensitive and serve as powerful role models.
Strengthen the research: Strong and research-oriented academic environments is required to develop the intellectual talent for research and to enable existing researchers to acquire and expand their skills for better preventive and intervention modules to curb tobacco usage. The dental schools, hospitals and independent research institutions have an important role in the future of clinical and applied oral health research.
Barriers: We lack integration between the basic and clinical sciences, incorporation of research into the dental curriculum is inadequate plus face financial shortfalls. There is need to bolster research infrastructure, create an adequate and able workforce. Next, we need to utilize media and communication for transforming research into practical benefits for the common man.
Platform creation for united efforts: It is vital to form a multilateral and an inclusive research platform that allows activities and inputs from professionals from diverse backgrounds for compilation and maximization of efforts and outcomes for tobacco cessation.
Train professionals: Training professionals is critical, this must address the attitudes to tobacco use, impart the knowledge and skills required for intervention, address the therapeutic nihilism that often surrounds tobacco cessation interventions. Provide updates on emerging approaches to tobacco cessation. The following points should be remembered while training professionals.
Create media and public awareness: Target audiences are health-care providers, consumers, research community and other groups such as educators, policymakers, and media who need to be educated about adverse effects of tobacco.
Establish and develop collaborations: Tobacco cessation cannot succeed as an isolated programme.
Tobacco usage in India is complex problem - we at TII have realized that tobacco cessation will be effective only with a multi-sectoral approach, involving the diverse sectors with preventive, curative and rehabilitative aspects of care.
Creating tangible evidence base
Period data sorting and analysis needs documentation of the collected data.
