Be Careful and Fearful – Corporate engagement to SAVE the youth, Creating TOBACCO MARSHALs

TALK – SAVE THE YOUTH SENSITIZATION TALK – CORPORATE

ONGC – Vasant Kunj Corporate Office

Topic: BE CAREFUL AND FEARFUL – Corporate engagement to SAVE the youth, Creating TOBACCO MARSHALs

Schedule: 21st October 2022 Time: 11:00 – 11:40 pm onwards

ICanCaRe Experts for the CAMP –

Dr. Pawan Gupta M.Ch, Director – Cancer Surgeon – MAX – Patparganj, Vaishali

As a part of the ONGC Cancer Awareness Health Mela organized by Corporate Medical Services, a talk  “BE CAREFUL And FEARFUL” was given by Dr. Pawan Gupta at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation – Vasant Kunj Premises on 21st October 2022.

Dr. Pawan Gupta presented the importance of the SAVE the youth campaign in any organization and having TOBACCO MARSHALs on the premises.

The highlights of his talk included:

  • Tobacco is a disease and needs to be treated as a disease
  • Studies have shown tobacco users in any Institute comprise about 30-40%
  • The majority of the Medical bill by any PSU is because of the chronic ill health of these tobacco users.
  • Establishing tobacco users need centered activities will see a decrease in the medical bill over a period of time. Any investment in this will bring a major change for the corporate.
  • A tobacco user Smoker is a man-hour loss to the company, which if calculated goes in crores.
  • ICanCaRe can partner with the PSU to provide a Sensitization, Assistance, Training, and Enforcement plan for making an Institute Tobacco User Friendly and save crores of rupees for the Institute.
  • The book – How to Make an Institution Tobacco Free authored by Pawan Gupta is a comprehensive guide for the same.
  • He made them aware that quitting tobacco is possible and that one can quit tobacco with proper intervention by a Tobacco Cessation Specialist.
  • Tobacco Chewers are on the rise in PSUs as smoking is not allowed on the premises. People switch to chew.
  • He also highlighted self-examination, by 4 finger test and Chota Daana examination of the oral cavity on regular basis, especially for high-risk who take tobacco in any form.
  • TRISCaRe the innovative mouth opener device was also demonstrated, which is a need for chewers for the unique disease Submucous fibrosis.

Mr. Kashmir Singh Randhawa, Group General Manager, HR who presented the token of appreciation to Dr. Pawan Gupta appreciated the concept of TOBACCO MARSHALs in all the units of ONGC and also for establishing ICanCaRe tobacco users clinic in the units.

Dr. Pranita Das, Head, Corporate Medical Services, more than agrees that the majority of medical bills are spent on tobacco users and more needs to be done to control this menace.

The medical team Dr. Vimal Kumar and Dr. Madhu all agreed and accepted the suggestions to do more on this line. 

ICanCaRe with its expertise in Tobacco Control would be very happy to collaborate with ONGC for making it Tobacco Free.

Present during the talk were 77 ONGC management

Dr. Madhu, a practicing Physician said that cancer will become an epidemic if we don’t take care of it now. It is important that the public should raise their voice and treating doctors’ skills themselves to be able to prescribe to quit tobacco.

The program was nicely conducted and Participants showed interest to become tobacco MARSHAL to have a sustained effect in society against tobacco and drugs.

#MAX #SaveTheYouth #tobaccomarshal #icancare #pawangupta #ongc

Tobacco – Enjoy to Suffer

The start of the journey of a tobacco user is of enjoyment. The tobacco is packed and advertised to attract the youth. The flavor, menthol, etc added to tobacco – smoking. chewing or vaping is to make it an enjoyable thing. But the addictive factor added to it is slowly affecting the brain making it irresistible. The youth are attracted to tobacco by surrogate advertisements and misleading advertisements.

TOBACCO ENJOY TO SUFFER

Cigarettes contain 7000 chemicals, of these 200 are severely harmful and 69 are cancer-causing chemicals. In chewing tobacco similar constituents with 28 very harmful carcinogens. The Vaping device also contains chemicals that are leading to new forms of diseases.

No chemicals cause acute injury, it is a journey. In simple words, tobacco will not cause any diseases immediately. Its chronic use will slowly take its toll. Slowly diseases appear and it affects the body, initially reversible and later irreversible. This can be any time from the start of the tobacco journey and depends on many other factors. 200 types of diseases have been documented to be caused by tobacco. Tobacco users will have some or other diseases related to tobacco use, they cannot escape! In India, the introduction of chewing tobacco in the 1970s  and massive advertisements brought a new form of disease Oral and oropharyngeal Cancers and Submucous fibrosis. Now, we are the World’s highest in these diseases.

If you have taken tobacco for some time and you think you are not suffering, you are mistaken. The brain is adapting to your tobacco use, its function starts deteriorating, and to keep up with its pace as a non-tobacco user, the demand for tobacco keeps increasing. You are in a vicious cycle.

The journey starts with some foolish person enticing you to your first tobacco – smoking, chewing, or vaping will soon turn into suffering for yourself and for your relatives. These are the phases of tobacco use that will ultimately end in a painful untimely death.

Your present choice will determine your future life! #knowtobacco to choose your life journey.  

Tobacco is a disease.  Tobacco industries are enticing the new generation with newer forms, packaging, and flavors. One has to be smart not to start. For those who have started it is important they quit the earliest. Quitting needs hand-holding by a certified tobacco cessation specialist. Look for someone around you or call 011-43077695 or download the app- ICanCaRe at http://app.icancare.in

Every day 5500 youths are trapped and they start tobacco. Every day 3700 are dying a painful death. We have to change this scenario. Every unit must have a TOBACCO MARSHAL. Join a Tobacco MARSHAL to SAVE the youth! http://icancare.in/academy/marshal

 (The Author – Dr. Pawan Gupta M.Ch. is Director of Surgical Oncology at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali. Patparganj and Noida. He is the author of the book – Win Over Tobacco Made Easy, Be Smart Do Not Start and is highly recognized for his work on Oral Cancer and Tobacco Cessation. He is the convenor for the Certified Course in Tobacco Cessation at Gujarat University. He launched the #SAVEtheyouth campaign and Tobacco MARSHALs in the community)

 (Critically reviewed by Tobacco MARSHAL Sonal Bhatia, Shubh Bhatia, and Lakshay Srijay Gupta)