The Hindu : New Delhi News : Doctors know how tobacco kills

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 01, 2007
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New Delhi

Doctors know how tobacco kills

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

It encourages cell mutation causing cancer, says AIIMS research team Nicotine can raise the heart rate, blood pressure

NEW DELHI: Tobacco kills. Though they knew this all along, researchers thus far weren't able to pinpoint just how. Now doctors at the country's premier All-India Institute of Medical Sciences have "decoded" the process of how tobacco works in the human body and its relationship with cancer.

The ongoing research at AIIMS has also indicated that tobacco when combined with alcohol is twice as deadly.

"Our research has been able to prove that tobacco encourages cell mutation causing cancer. Tobacco can cause mutation in the p53 human gene -- a tumour suppressor and also increases the epidermal growth factor receptor that allows the cells to multiply leading to cancer," says Dr. P. K. Julka, Professor of Oncology at AIIMS .

"While there are international research papers which prove that smoking is harmful and that it can cause cancer, with our ongoing research we finally have enough proof allowing us to show that tobacco kills and also explain how the process happens. We have also found that nicotine, an addictive substance found in tobacco leaves, can raise the heart rate and blood pressure. Also, the tobacco tar coats and irritates the lining of the lungs and is cancer causing. Tobacco smoke contains arsenic, acetone, ammonia and phenol, exposure to which is injurious to health. Tobacco in any form is dangerous and we have seen an increased use of the same in our country. Tobacco is the Number One cause of cancer among men in India," adds Dr. Julka.

According to the latest research findings, the country has more tobacco users with the average age of abusers steadily falling. "We now have school going children using tobacco. However, the ratio of women tobacco users is still very low. People have to understand that tobacco kills and we hope that our research will go a long way in sending this important message across to the general public," says Dr. Julka.

In India, despite the ban on public smoking, the habit still persists and the country continues to contribute significantly to the worldwide figure of six people dying every single minute due to tobacco abuse.

"For tobacco abusers no drugs are effective and the only remedy is quitting the habit," asserts the Heart Care Foundation of India president, Dr. K. K. Aggarwal.

Monika Arora, director of Hriday-Shan, an NGO working in the sector, said on Thursday: "This World No-Tobacco Day we sensitised people about the dual disadvantage that disabled children are subjected to in terms of passive smoking. "

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