The word cancer strikes terror even among the brave hearted. But when it comes to smoking, you find that an overwhelming majority of the smokers, say 99% in Kashmir show a lack of will power to kick the habit. Researchers so far have come out with statistics about the incidence of different cancers in Kashmir which is somehow related to different habits and practices followed locally. The seven most common types of cancers in men were those of the food pipe or oesophagus, lungs, stomach, skin, upper respiratory tract, and urinary tract. In women the most common types of cancer were those affecting the food pipe or oesophagus, breast, cervix, stomach, skin, colon/rectum, and lungs. Cancer of the food pipe or oesophagus was the most frequent type in both genders, accounting for 42.9% of all types of cancers in the valley. This distribution of cancer types is strikingly different from that in the rest of India where oropharyngeal or mouth and throat cancer is the most common form which is attributable to the tobacco eating habit. Again, contrary to the country level trend as a whole, cervical cancer is not a leading type of cancer in the valley and is less frequent than the cancer of the breast in the women because of the universal practice of circumcision followed in Kashmir. Yet another study conducted here  which was based on a retrospective review of histopathologically confirmed lung cancer patients who were registered and treated at SKIMS over a period of 5 years shoed that out of 321 patients studied there was a preponderance of males (91.9%) as compared to females (8.1%). Smoking history was present in 88% of the male patients. The study showed that 77.3% of the patients suffered from the lethal Squamous cell carcinoma, while 17.1% had small cell carcinoma. The medics here have been time and again warning people about the possibility of lung cancer taking an epidemic form. But who cares? The Government too has a callous approach to the menace that is costing it a fortune in terms of creating facilities for providing treatment to the victims of the disease.  The arrival of the junk foods and their growing popularity among the youth is another source of worry for the epidemiologists as these are considered to carry carcinogens. The awareness about cancers is lacking and the efforts by the government as well as the NGOs are not adequate. There is much to be desired in the area of awareness generation. Most of the cancers are preventable as well as curable provided these are detected at early stages. Alas! We people are not serious about it. The only encouraging step that was taken by the present government was imposition of the ban on cigarette smoking in public places, but, the ban remained confined to the books as it was never ever strictly enforced. Smokers are mocking at the authorities in a brazen manner in the corridors of the power that is secretariat. Cigarettes are on sale within the corridors of power and interestingly the vendors are public servants. This shows the seriousness with which the government is taking the problem. Sending a team or so to make a casual round of the premises cannot be called enforcement. If the government is sincere in implementing the ban it must come out with a plan to enforce it. The punishment for the offence of smoking in public should be deterrent one so that nobody can even think of smoking in the government offices or other public places. There were times when the public servants would purchase ash trays and even cigarettes out of office expenses. The worst thing that is happening is that a sizeable number of medicos are afflicted with the habit of smoking whose very presence in the society is a great cause of concern. These people indirectly and unwittingly encourage others to smoke. The religious leaders, social activists, teachers and public men of all hues need to deal with the monster individually as well as collectively. Around 3 million people may die of the lung cancer globally in 2010, estimated by a US study should serve as an eye opener. Even though we do not know how many from among the dead will be from J&K, but, going by the percentage of smokers in our society, a large number of victims are going to be from the state. We better wake up. Earlier the better.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST