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The state cabinet today approved a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage and distribution of all types of gutkha and paan masala that have tobacco and nicotine content, a decision that follows a sharp increase in the number of oral cancer patients.
The order will become effective from the date of notification. Cabinet co-ordination department’s principal secretary N.N. Pandey said the order would become functional in the state very soon.
He added that since 2006, there has been a nearly 30 per cent increase in the number of oral cancer patients, a majority of who were addicted to tobacco and related products.
The ban has been slapped under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which the Jharkhand government implemented in January, nearly five years after the law was enacted.
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