New Delhi, May 12: Bidi smoking is probably killing more people and causing more disease than any other tobacco product in India, the first comprehensive report on the health impact of bidis has indicated.

A typical bidi has less tobacco than a cigarette, but contains higher levels of tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, carcinogenic hydrocarbons and other toxic substances, according to the report released by the health ministry today.

The material used in the wrapping of bidi tobacco is less porous and less combustible than cigarette wrapping paper. This could lead to a higher intake of carbon monoxide, nicotine and tar during bidi smoking, one study in the report said.

“A bidi has to be puffed two to three times more frequently than a cigarette. Frequent puffs cause greater inhalation of nicotine and tar,” Surendra Shastri, head of preventive oncology at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, wrote in the report.

Public health experts have estimated that about 800 billion bidis are smoked in India every year, in contrast to 100 billion cigarettes. “We have more bidi smokers than any other tobacco product,” said Prakash Gupta, director of the Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, Mumbai, one of the co-editors of the report.

A study released earlier this year had predicted that India would have one million smoking-related deaths by 2010. “I would estimate that about three-fourths of these could be linked to bidis,” Gupta said.

The report was jointly produced by the US Center for Disease Control, India’s ministry of health and other organisations.

He said a global youth tobacco survey five years ago had shown that bidis were even reaching teenagers in India. About 2 per cent of children in the 13-15 age group were found to be smoking bidis.

While bidi smoking is associated with the poor and underprivileged sections in India, it has also become a concern in the US where bidis are sold as herbal products, in multiple flavours, and are available via the Internet, the report said.

Bidis exported from India for sale in the US are available in brightly coloured packages and a variety of flavours — cherry, honey, mango, strawberry, chocolate, among others — two researchers who analysed bidi promotion practices in the US have said.

Among 14 brands of bidis — filtered and unfiltered — found in the US market in 2005, five had been classified as herbal.