Hardly any of India’s 275 million tobacco users intent on quitting their habit

At least 94 percent of tobacco users in India have no intention of quitting, according to a Times of India story quoting a recent report by the Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project India (TCP India project).

The TCP India project is part of the International Tobacco Control Project, a multicountry initiative to evaluate the impact of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The report’s researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with 8,000 tobacco users and 2,400 non-tobacco users across four states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra), focusing upon one city and its surrounding rural district in each state.

It found that current tobacco use among adults aged 15 years and older ranged from 23 percent to 47 percent.

Smokeless tobacco was the most common form of tobacco product used in all four states, with at least two out of five adults using smokeless tobacco.

According to the report, there are about 275 million tobacco users in India.