The Hindu Business Line : Vivek Oberoi gets No-Tobacco award

HE may smoke in films, but in real life, Bollywood star, Vivek Oberoi, is among 32 others chosen from across the world by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the World No-Tobacco Award 2004 given for efforts to fight tobacco consumption.

According to Dr Khalilur Rahman of the WHO's Regional office for South-East Asia, Oberoi, who himself is a non-smoker, created three spots for television against smoking. "He has also been working with several cancer associations and had committed last year to persuade his film producers and directors not to force him smoke on-screen," Dr Rahman said.

This comes after the WHO had last year conducted a study where Oberoi along with Ajay Devgan and Shah Rukh Khan were the top three stars that had acted in the maximum number of scenes smoking. "Oberoi took anti-smoking initiative after the study was made public," he said.

Others include Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossian, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh; Dr Kyaw Myint, Myanmar's Minister of Health; Dr Charal Trinvuthipong, Director-General of Thai Health Ministry; and the Venerable Dhammajayo Bhikku of Thailand.

The WHO today also added that the vicious cycle between tobacco and poverty should be broken as "tobacco further impoverishes the poor," said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director for WHO's South-East Asia Region. He called for an increase in taxes to reduce tobacco consumption, particularly among the poor. At the same time, serious efforts must be made to provide alternative livelihood or crop substitution for tobacco growers, he added.

Citing a study conducted in Tamil Nadu, Dr Samlee said that smokers were three times as likely to report a history of tuberculosis than non-smokers, and that 50 per cent of deaths among male TB patients between the ages of 25 and 69 could be attributed to smoking. He also stressed the importance of continuing tobacco control programmes with other relevant programmes such as health promotion and TB control.

Later in the day, the Union Health Minister, Dr A. Ramadoss, while addressing a function on World No-Tobacco Day, said that the Government would do everything possible to bring down the consumption of tobacco.

He added that he would initiate talks with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to stop surrogate ads and also curb serials from showing smoking. The State Governments would also be urged to ensure that the tobacco legislation is implemented.

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