A recent survey has found out that a substantial percentage of school-going children use dental-care products containing tobacco.

The first phase of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2004, sponsored by the WHO and Centre for Disease Control, USA , has come up with disturbing facts like these for India .

Fourteen states, including Maharashtra , have been covered in the survey so far.

Says Prakash Gupta of the Epidemiology Research Unit, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research: “We did a survey of 13- to 15-yearold school-going children and found that a disturbing percentage of these children are using dental-care products which contain tobacco.”

“These (products) include Lal Dantamanjan as well as what is colloquially known as the ‘tobacco toothpaste’ which comes in various brands like IPCO, Ganesh, Dentobac or Tona.Other dental-care products like gudaku (a paste of tobacco and molasses), misri (containing powdered, roasted tobacco) and gul are also used by children today.”

According to the study, the percentage of children using tobacco-laced dental-care products ranges from 6 per cent in Goa to 60 per cent in Bihar. The effect of these products is as habit-forming as any other tobacco product.

“There is already a law, effective from 1992, which says tobacco cannot be added to any dental -care product,” Mr Gupta says.

“All that the concerned ministry has to do now is to enforce this law strictly. These dental-care items should be treated as tobacco products. Their ads should be banned, their packaging should carry statutory warnings.”

The next part of the study includes an intervention programme and periodical surveys for monitoring the situation.

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