Times of India
20 October 2010
By Kounteya Sinha
New Delhi, India

Around 275 million people in India, at 15 years and above use tobacco, which is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the world.

An average Indian has been found to start using tobacco at 17.8 years. Not many could quit this dangerous habit. The quit ratio for smoking is 13% while that of smokeless tobacco users is 5%. Shockingly, one in every four female tobacco users are initiated into it before reaching their 15th birthday. Two in every five daily tobacco users (aged 20-34) took to it day in and day out before they had turned 18.

According to the nation’s maiden Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS), the findings of which were released by the Union health ministry on Tuesday, India is the second largest consumer of tobacco products and third largest producer of tobacco in the world.

The survey, which was carried out across 29 states in 19 languages with a sample size of 72,000 households, found that nearly 0.9 million deaths occur in India every year due to tobacco as compared to 5.5 million deaths world wide. Around 34.6% of adults, 47.9% of males and 20.3% of females, use tobacco. Around 14% are tobacco smokers, and 25.9% are users of smokeless tobacco.

Interestingly, among daily tobacco users, 60.2% consumed tobacco within half an hour of waking up in the morning. Among minors (15-17 years), 9.6% consumed tobacco in some form or the other.