Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (EP)

Udupi, Sep 13: Those who inhale the tobacco smoke exhaled by direct smokers are the second hand smokers. While 10 lac people die of smoking, two lac people out of them are second hand smokers or passive smokers.

Out of the cancer cases in India, 27% are due to tobacco use.

The use of tobacco has not decreased despite the restrictions. Therefore, the state government has decided to come up with the idea of tobacco free residential complexes as a pilot project. The government will conduct a survey of residents in complexes, prepare a list of tobacco users and non-users among them and create awareness among them to make their houses tobacco-free.

As a large number of students and families have migrated to Udupi and Manipal, there is a huge demand for residential complexes. The government has plans to extend the tobacco-free complexes project to other cities in the state if it succeeds in Udupi. If that happens the people are likely to look for tobacco-free complexes during their construction.

Kodibengre village in Udupi is already declared tobacco-free. There are activities to declare Renjala in Karkala and Korgi village in Kundapur free from tobacco. Officials in government offices have been directed to declare their premises free from tobacco. Dr Nagarathna, district officer of Udupi said that all the preparations had been made for the successful implementation of the project.