Karnataka   

Over 50 p.c. of pre-university Bangalore students are smokers

Bangalore: The findings of a study, conducted by the Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bangalore, this year, shows that over 50 per cent of pre-university (PU) students pursuing courses in arts and humanities are smokers.

The rules and advertisements to discourage the use of tobacco products by the youth have had no impact on students in Bangalore.

The study revealed that 58.9 per cent of students of arts and humanities, followed by 30.6 per cent and 10.6 per cent students of science and commerce streams, respectively, use tobacco products.

The study was conducted in two stages in Bangalore’s 19 PU colleges on 1,087 students of first year PU (53 per cent) and second year PU (47 per cent). At least 18 colleges had one or more tobacco selling points within 100 yards of their campus. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2005 prohibits sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of any educational institution. As much as 55.8 per cent of students said that peer pressure had influenced them to use tobacco products.

More than 30 per cent said their teachers were smokers, while 31.74 per cent said that at least one parent used tobacco products.

As much as 18 per cent felt the need to smoke or consume tobacco when they saw film stars smoking or chewing gutka in films, IPH’s Upendra Bhojani, who conducted the study under the guidance of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, told The Hindu.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Over 50 p.c. of pre-university Bangalore students are smokers
19 Lingayat sub-sects in BC list
Creating awareness against alcohol abuse
‘Prepare students to work for betterment of society’
‘Kannada-related work is being streamlined’
Drinking water high on agenda: Shobha
Two vented dams inaugurated
Poor compliance
Power supply

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu