Smokers in India start later in life and smoke fewer cigarettes
or 'bidis' than those in Europe or America, but the risks are as
extreme as in the West, according to findings in The New England
Journal of Medicine quoted by media reports Thursday.
One in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female
deaths between the ages of 30 and 69 will be caused by smoking,
said the study, conducted by a team of doctors and scientists from
India, Canada and Britain.
The study sent 900 field workers to survey 1.1 million homes
across the country. It compared the smoking history of 74,000
adults who died from 2001 to 2003 with 78,000 living adults.
The study says there are currently about 120 million smokers in
India. More than 30 percent of men and 5 percent of women between
30 and 69 years of age smoke either cigarettes or "bidis" -- small,
cheaply made cigarettes which contain about one-fourth the tobacco
of a regular cigarette.
Bidis are popular among poor Indians because they are
significantly cheaper. A packet of 10 costs about 2 rupees (about 5
U.S. cents; euro 0.03) while the cheapest cigarettes cost 1 rupee
(2 U.S. cents; euro 0.01) apiece.
The study found more than 50 percent of smoking deaths are
likely to be among the poor, illiterate Indians.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)