1 million individuals die in India every year from tobacco related disease

While we think that we have a severe smoking problem in the United Kingdom it is nothing compared to the problem in third world countries with developing economies like India. The amount of people taking up smoking in these places easily outweighs the number of people quitting in America and the United Kingdom which means that in the future tobacco companies will still make good profits.

It is estimated that there are about 120 million smokers in India and that close to 1 million individuals die in India every year from tobacco related disease. According to the New England Journal of Medicine smoking shortens the life of the average Indian man by a decade. 

Ukmedix News has recently learned that Pfizer has initiated plans to set up over 600 special smoking cessation clinics all over India in partnership with local health clinics and hospitals. The government is actively supporting the initiative and has also said that they will be setting up their own health clinics around India. Pfizer obviously want to prescribe their smoking cessation drug Champix which as yet has no government approval. Clinical trials are soon to start in India so that Champix can be an integral part of the Indian government's smoking cessation initiative.

It's crazy to think that cigarette companies spend millions of pounds in developing countries to promote their cigarettes with billboards sprouting up everywhere and at the same time drug companies are investing in the same countries to stop people smoking. The whole cycle is a massive tax on the people of India.

The government should not allow cigarette companies to advertise cigarettes and should ban smoking in public places if they are serious about improving the health of the nation. One of the reasons why they are setting up all of these antismoking clinics is because they allowed the promotion of cigarettes in the first place and didn't do enough to educate the people about the dangers of smoking.