In two days, the Central Railway carried out a drive to check luggage porters who consume tobacco. This drive was carried out on May 26-27 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Dadar stations as a prelude to World No Tobacco Day which will be observed on May 31.
According to officials from Central Railway, the doctors and medical staff from the Tata Memorial hospital took this two day camp for the coolies and luggage porters at CSMT and Dadar stations. During the camp, they orally screened 168 beneficiaries, 86 from CSMT and 82 from Dadar, for oral cancer and counselling for tobacco cessation.
"We found that out of 168 beneficiaries, 131 were consuming tobacco. Of these 57 beneficiaries were screened positive and were referred to the Preventive Oncology department," said a member of the drive.
Out of the 57 suspected cases of oral cancer, 36 of them work at CSMT and the rest at Dadar station. These coolies were checked for 10 different suspected reasons of oral lesions from chewing and consuming tobacco and were later referred to the Preventive Oncology department.
Out of the 131 beneficiaries found to have been consuming tobacco, 65 were working at CSMT and 66 at Dadar railway station. This initiative is the curb the use of tobacco by establishing the Tobacco Quit Line (TQL) Centre. The objective of the initiative is to provide effective counselling to tobacco users who are willing to quit and enable them to quit tobacco through a toll-free number 1800-11-2356.
Creating a significant impact in the past three years, about 12,000 people have been successful in quitting tobacco.
On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2022, observed on May 31; to raise the awareness of the Tobacco Quit Line Services, a camp was held at CSMT and Dadar Railway Station on the 26th and 27th of May, respectively.
In the camp, trained counsellors met/ interacted with coolies, taxi drivers, hawkers, police officers, and sweepers/housekeeping staff and provided counselling regarding the harmful effects of tobacco consumption. During the counselling, they observed that complaints from the visitors regarding the white patches, red patches, and difficulty in opening the mouth were made.
Dr Rohan Bartake, Tobacco De-addiction expert said that for this year, the theme for World No Tobacco Day is ‘Protect The Environment.’ Quit buddy community is inviting people who are interested to spread tobacco de-addiction awareness and help their friends and family members to quit smoking and contribute to make India Tobacco free.
