Meet the Man Behind Tobacco Ban

Bangalore: While gutkha and paan masala manufacturers showcased big investment numbers to justify their business, Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, associate professor at Tata Memorial Hospital, who has been at the forefront of the anti-tobacco movement, strives hard to curb the use of tobacco. He said “You can fight a statistic but you can never fight a patient,” report Ananya Banerjee and Smita Nair for Indian Express.

Dr Pankaj brought three strategically chosen persons to narrate their “cancer stories” before the state Assembly. The three -Sonu Solanki, a minor who became an addict; Sumitra Pednekar, the widow of tobacco addict and home and labour minister of Maharashtra Satish Pednekar, who died of oral cancer last year; and a retired government officer who has cancer.

“Imagine an 18-year-old talking about living under the fear of cancer or a widow speaking of her tobacco addict husband’s last few hours. It instilled fear in the MLAs. Here was a man who would sit among them a few months ago and was no more,” Chaturvedi said of Pednekar, as reported by Indian Express.

Maharashtra has the largest number of smokeless tobacco users with every second person of the two lakh addicts suffering from cancer. He added “One man’s death is a story. Many deaths is a statistic.”

On August 16, as five gutkha manufacturers challenge the ban in the High Court, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has called Dr Chaturvedi to back them in court with “medical academia” as they validate their move. This hasn’t been easy for Chaturvedi, who has been pushing support for the past two years.