KANNUR:
Though the legal age of selling tobacco products in the country is 18 years, over 70 per cent of higher secondary school students surveyed in the district begin tobacco consumption at the age of 15, finds a study conducted by the Kannur Medical College.
Nearly a quarter of ‘ever users’ consume tobacco products in school premises, finds the study, which 
surveyed 775 students in two random pre-university schools of the district, and published the report in a recent edition of the open-access, peer-reviewed International Journal of Scientific Study. Ever users are defined as those who have used tobacco at least once.
The study found that nearly 19 per cent of boy students between 15 and 18 years use tobacco in any form and the prevalence of smoking is a high 18.15 per cent. The study titled ‘Tobacco Use among Pre-University Students in Kannur, Kerala: A Cross-sectional study’ covered 336 boys and 439 girls.
A high 41 per cent of the study subjects got tobacco products from a nearby shop, while around 27 per cent got it from friends. Nearly 79 per cent of surveyed students said that it was “fairly easy” and “very easy” to obtain these products.
The silver-lining however is the finding that 87 per cent of students felt that use of tobacco products do not make them more attractive. More than 68 per cent knew that tobacco use causes cancer. Marking a difference from the nation-wide trend, the study has found that tobacco chewers are very less in number.
Dr Sushrit A Neelopant, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, and Dr D Shilpa, Department of Radiodiagnosis, of Kannur Medical College collaborated on the study.
Dr Neelopant said, “The study was conducted as a means of providing baseline information on higher secondary students and their tobacco use. A questionnaire based on a WHO template was used to elicit information from students through self-reporting. Participation in the study was purely voluntary, and complete anonymity for the information provided was assured. Other than tobacco use, students were also asked about habits of family members, peer influence and tobacco control law in India.”
The media has played an important role in disseminating information about the legislation governing tobacco products in India. Of the 92 per cent who said they were aware of the Act, over 35 per cent got the information from print and television media.
Co-author of the study Dr Shilpa said, “The high percentage of cigarette smoking outside the school campus is a matter of concern. Programmes and interventions targeting young people with focus on preventing initiation together with cessation programmes in the young are the need of the hour.”
The study also recommends a comprehensive school-based tobacco control strategy comprising a combination of tobacco free school policies and community wide programmes
involving families, peers and community based activities to reduce tobacco in schools.
Significantly, Section 6 of Indian tobacco control law COTPA, 2003, mandates that tobacco products should not be sold to persons below 18 years. It states that the onus of establishing whether a person is below 18 years rests with the seller.
