Assam moves to ban all chewing tobacco

Assam Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has tabled a bill in the state assembly seeking to outlaw the manufacture, storage, sale and consumption of all smokeless tobacco products within the state.

The bill, if passed, would likely be the first in the country to cover all chewing tobacco products.

As much of the rest of the world has come to realize that tobacco’s main danger derives from the chemicals produced in burning it, and therefore that some noncombustible products (including some oral tobacco products) are less risky than are combustible ones, such as cigarettes and bidis, India has moved to banning many of its noncombustible products while retaining its combustible ones.