100 schools in Solan district designated tobacco free

Aimed at safeguarding students’ health and well-being, the district health authorities have designated 100 schools as tobacco-free under the ‘Tobacco Free Youth Campaign 3.0’, which was started in October.

Tobacco consumption poses a major risk for contracting serious ailments like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic lung disease, stroke, infertility, blindness, tuberculosis, oral cavity, etc. It attributes to 50% of cancers in males and 20% in females, while also accounting for 40% cases of tuberculosis and other related diseases, say health experts.

Recognising the vulnerability of the youth, the Union Government has adopted a whole-of-government approach to address the issue through sustained awareness, prevention and enforcement measures.

Dr Amit Ranjan Talwar, Medical Officer, Solan, said, “The district has been granted a target of reaching out to 400 schools under the Tobacco Free Youth Campaign 3.0 launched nationally on October 9 and slated to continue till December 8.”

“In a bid to sensitise the students about the ill-effects of consuming tobacco, schools are required to undertake measures like erecting signage displaying the deleterious effects of consuming tobacco within and outside the premises,” the official added.

In a bid to curb consumption, a tobacco-free yard would be created by drawing yellow lines in a periphery of 100m around the institute. “No sale of consumption would be permitted within the yard to achieve the status of tobacco-free institute, which will be aptly monitored by the staff and students,” added Dr Talwar.

Other measures like appointing tobacco monitors in the schools to inculcate a sense of responsibility among the students will also be undertaken by each school.

Since an average initiation age of tobacco consumption is just 10 years as per the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, promoting a tobacco-free lifestyle among the youth has become a key health concern of the authorities.

The 60-day campaign aims to rid all forms of tobacco consumption within the educational institutes in the district where awareness, prevention and strict enforcement of tobacco control laws.

It, however, remains to be seen whether the institute faculty and staff who are habitual tobacco users will manage to abstain to lead by example or the campaign remains confined to the students only.