9.9% school kids suffer from bronchial asthma

The students residing in rural area who are exposed to smoke along with a family history of bronchial asthma are at greater risk of getting the chronic inflammatory disease compared with those staying in urban area, shows a study conducted by Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences among the higher secondary school students in Ernakulam district.

A total of 629 students participated in this study and the prevalence of bronchial asthma was estimated to be 9.9%. Besides family history, one of the main causes for asthma as per the study is active and passive smoking. Almost 15.3 % of those who had asthma reported that their friends used to smoke in their presence, when compared to 8.6% of those who reported not being exposed to friend's smoke. In the study, 18.6% who had asthma reported a family history of asthma, as per the study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.

"One of the main cause of chronic respiratory disease is active and passive smoking, besides family history. This shows that despite the tobacco control programs in place, school students in Ernakulam reportedly smoke," one of the author of the study PS Rakesh, department of community medicine, AIMS.

The study shows that while 5.4% of those having bronchial asthma were told by a doctor that they had asthma, 4.1% were currently receiving treatment for asthma. Majority of those studied (56.1%) were males, with 54.8% residing at a rural location and 93.9% living in pucca houses. Incidentally, of those residing in rural area (12.2%) had asthma while it was 7.1% for those belonging to urban areas.

In India, there are currently more than 15 million people living with asthma. Kerala government that has implemented a pilot project of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended practical approach to lung health strategy, with an intention to further strengthen the health system and to improve the quality of diagnosis, treatment and management of common chronic respiratory illnesses in primary healthcare settings.

The state government has a plan to scale up public health programmes for chronic respiratory disease management. As per the plan, they have started a programme to address the problem of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, affecting nearly 9% of the population above 35 years.

Courtesy:Times of India

Read more ...

Cigs cheaper under GST

Contrary to popular perception among smokers that cigarettes and other tobacco products would be dearer under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, prices of these products have actually fallen by 7-9%.

The central government issued the notification regarding GST on cigarettes and other tobacco products on July 1, the day the new tax regime came into force. "The clarity on excise duty and other duties has come through after the issuance of the notification," said Deepak Mishra, anti-tobacco campaigner and executive director of Socio-Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS).

He added as per the new notification, basic excise duty (BED) and additional excise duty (AED) would not be levied on cigarettes. "Hence the effective taxes on cigarettes of various sizes have declined by 7-9% under the GST," Mishra said, adding the increasing demand for a higher tax on tobacco products in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescriptions has been belied.

Mishra said the notification issued on July 1 has exempted cigarettes from BED and AED. Since there was no notification on national calamity contingent duty (NCCD), it has been assumed that it would continue in the GST regime.

"Cigarettes will be subject to 28% GST, ad valorem cess of 5%, specific cess and NCCD. This means that if retail prices are unchanged, tax per stick of cigarette will reduce by 7-9%," Mishra said.

"The GST regime has been benign towards the smokers of cigarette and 'bidi'. In the country, the cigarette smokers account for 11% of total tobacco consumers, and the remaining 89% belongs to the category of people who smoke 'bidi' and those who chew tobacco. The biggest share (80%) of revenue that the government gets is from the sale of cigarettes," Mishra added.

Mishra said effective low taxation on cigarette and other tobacco items under GST was in sync with the overall trend of decrease in tax on cigarettes for the last three fiscals, beginning with 13% in 2015-16, 10% in 2016-17 and 6% in 2017-18. Prior to this, the annual tax increase on cigarettes was 20%.

Source: Times of India

Read more ...