Bhubaneswar, Nov. 10: A presentation was organised at Delhi Public School (DPS) Kalinga, in association with the state health department and Voluntary Health Association of India’s (VHAI) project ‘Aparajita’, to make students aware about the ill effects of tobacco.

The project manager of VHAI-Aparajita, Itishree Kanungo and counsellor Sambit Nanda, along with Sanjay Panda, an oncologist from the Panda Curie Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Cuttack, interacted with the students for an hour.

Posters and slogans on anti-tobacco were put up at every corner of the school. Panda gave a visual presentation on the hazards of chewing and smoking tobacco.

He said Orissa and Bihar account for the highest number of tobacco chewers in the country.

The team harped on the fact that tobacco is a “temporary stimulant but a permanent hazard”.

According to the National Household Survey, more than 57 per cent of the households in the state chew tobacco and 28 per cent of all cancer patients in the state are afflicted with the disease due to this factor.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, given the present widespread tobacco consumption, cancer will be considered a common disease such as diabetes and asthma by the year 2020.

Panda gave a visual demonstration based on the theme “choose life and not tobacco” and sensitised the adolescents on the adverse effects of smoking and chewing betel, gutka and supari. He showed them pictures of tobacco users who had patchy skin, ulcers, wrinkles and decayed teeth.

Kanungo spoke about the city recently being declared as a smoke-free zone and encouraged the school children to be the torchbearers of this mission. “I wish these youngsters stand out as anti-tobacco agents,” she said.