The Centre is under pressure from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to ban certain pan masala brands which contain magnesium carbonate and/or nicotine. Pan masala, a chewing mixture which sometimes contains tobacco, has come under fire across the country. Numerous states have taken steps to ban certain brands. In Rajasthan, state […]
oral health
Drone-ASHA: The future of oral healthcare?
The Jyothy Institute of Technology (JIT) in Bengaluru has piloted a novel way of oral health screening: Drone-ASHA. Without the presence of any health worker or doctor, a drone attended a camp which offered screening for oral cancer. The device was equipped with brush biopsy equipment, a foldscope, and slides. Only a volunteer was present […]
Oral health awareness: AIIMS and Health Ministry partner up
In an effort to raise oral health awareness in India, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have collaborated to launch a digital program called ‘e-DantSeva’. The platform, in the form of a website and mobile app, will provide information concerning the government-run National Oral […]
A crisis of oral health issues in India’s children?
A staggering proportion of India’s children struggle with oral health issues. A recent study suggests a figure of eighty percent nationwide – at least. Poor oral health is one of the most neglected issues when it comes to public health, experts claimed earlier this year. In India, shortages of dentists mean many Indians go without […]
Oral health crisis fuelled by sugar
Despite the major global public health burden of oral diseases, oral health has been largely ignored by the global health community, according to a series of articles on oral health published in The Lancet. India is no exception. There is a shortage of dentists in the country that has resulted in many Indians simply never […]
Delhi extends ban on forms of tobacco
The Delhi government has extended its ban on several forms of tobacco for a year. Cigarettes are still available, but popular alternatives such as gutkha, pan masala, and kharra cannot be manufactured, stored, or sold in the national capital. A notification issued by the Food Safety Commissioner for the National Capital Region said the prohibition […]
Gadchiroli: The district where oral cancer takes a toll
The Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra claims a dubious distinction. It is the Indian district with the highest rate of oral cancer. The district is home to more than a million people and reports an estimated 550 cancer cases every year. Oral cancer accounts for 28 percent of these cases, including forty percent of cancers in […]
Why you should be worried about students’ health
The findings of a report researching the health of Indian students have raised a number of concerns about the health of India’s children. The research screened 176,240 schoolchildren aged two to seventeen across twenty Indian cities. Those screened were assessed on numerous health parameters and it was discovered that a significant proportion of India’s students […]
Tamil Nadu rocked by Gutkha scam. What you need to know
The gutkha scam has been making headlines in Tamil Nadu, where senior officials including the health minister have been implicated in a multi-crore corruption scandal involving bribes paid by chewing tobacco companies. Officials stand accused of accepting bribes paid by manufacturers of gutkha, a chewing tobacco mixture which has been banned in Tamil Nadu since […]
Head and neck cancers kill in India: Tobacco to blame?
Most of the world’s head and neck cancer patients are from India, recent data suggests. Experts suggest that high rates of tobacco use, particularly among men, are behind the grim statistic that 57.5 percent of the world’s head and neck cancer patients reside in India. What’s worse, the number of cases in the country are […]