Juvenile beats his grandmother to death for objecting smoking

The police have apprehended a 14-year-old boy on charges of murdering his 75-year-old grandmother at her residence at Edappatty in Kalpetta, Wayanad for objecting to his smoking.

Alagamma, wife of Allimuthu of Chullimoola, near Edappatty, in the district, was missing since Sunday. Her body was found with a bruised forehead inside a bush near her residence in a joint search led by her relatives, Sunilkumar, Circle Inspector of police, Kalpetta, who is investigating the case, said.

The woman and her husband were living in Edappatty, and the parents of the boy were granite quarry workers at Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode district. The teenager, a boarding student in a hostel in the district, had come to Edappatty a few days back.

During interrogation, the accused revealed to the police that the incident occurred around 9 a.m. on Sunday after his grandfather went out. When the woman found her grandson smoking inside the bathroom, she warned him that if he didn’t quit smoking, she would tell her husband.

It provoked the boy and he allegedly beat the woman to death with a hammer. He then dragged the body outside and hid it in a bush and went to play with his friends near the house.

When Allimuthu returned, he found his wife missing and started searching for her. The boy also joined him in the search. The boy left for his hostel after taking away Rs.500 from the house.

However the police learned that the boy had left the hostel around 7.p.m. on the day and they started searching for him. Finally, the boy was taken into custody from the Kozhikode KSRTC bus stand in the late night, Mr. Sunilkumar said.

The boy would be produced before the District Juvenile Justice board, he added.

Source: The Hindu

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E-cigarettes can cause heart disease: Study

Exposure to either e-cigarette aerosol or smokeless tobacco alone can increase the potential of atherosclerosis - a disease that leads to heart attack, stroke and peripheral arterial disease, says a study.

When atherosclerosis affects the arteries of the heart, it is known as coronary artery disease, a condition that affects more than 15 million Americans and causes 500,000 deaths annually.

"Currently, we do not know whether e-cigarettes are harmful. They do not generate smoke as do conventional cigarettes but they do generate an aerosol - the vapour that alters indoor air quality and contains toxic aldehydes," said Daniel J. Conklin from the University of Louisville in the US.

"We investigated the direct effects of these toxins on cardiovascular disease in the laboratory," Conklin stated.

For the study, researchers exposed one set of mice to varying levels of e-cigarette aerosol, tobacco smoke, smokeless tobacco or to an aldehyde produced by tobacco.

Another set of mice was exposed to nicotine alone to understand whether nicotine by itself had any effect.

Not surprisingly and consistent with previous studies, exposure to tobacco smoke increased the amount of atherosclerosis in mice. At the same time, the researchers found that either e-cigarette aerosol or smokeless tobacco exposure alone also increased atherosclerosis.

"These findings indicate that multiple tobacco-derived constituents have cardiovascular disease-causing potential," Conklin noted.

Source: Business Standard

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Tobacco control a development issue

Health and development experts in Kerala have applauded India’s commitment to tobacco control reflected in the first ‘South Asian Speakers’ Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)’ that concluded in Dhaka, Bangladesh last week.

India has endorsed the ‘Dhaka Declaration on SDG Action in South Asia’ that envisions making the region tobacco free by 2030. With this, India has agreed to “develop, strengthen and enforce tobacco-control policies, legislation and regulations” in line with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). FCTC is the international treaty on tobacco control of the World Health Organisation, which India ratified on 5 February 2004.

Through this Declaration, India has also agreed to work towards decreasing the affordability of all tobacco products by increasing tobacco taxes and “endeavour to set aside revenue generated from tobacco taxes to support tobacco control efforts.”

The Dhaka Declaration emerged after two days of deliberations by the Parliament Speakers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka on 30 and 31 January 2016.

Hon’ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha Smt Sumitra Mahajan chaired a session on “The Role of Parliaments in Implementing the SDGs”.

Shri CP John, Member, Kerala State Planning Board said, “Addressing public health issues has become a challenge in emerging economies. Tobacco use in different forms is a major threat to public health and development. Unfortunately, tobacco abuse found in marginal communities is wrongly conceived as a tradition. So the state should come forward in controlling tobacco use by strong enforcement and regular monitoring while the responsible citizenry should take the lead in educating the masses through wide public awareness programmes.”

Tobacco control has been included as a target under Goal 3 – Health and Well-being – of SDGs 2015-30.

Dr KR Thankappan, Professor and Head, Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies said, “As the country is grappling with shrinking health budgets, India’s strategy to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases through controlling tobacco use is a welcome step. Multi-sectoral efforts to reduce tobacco use which kills 1 million Indians a year are the need-of-the-hour.”

The South Asian Speakers’ Summit also announced the establishment of South Asian Speakers’ Forum that will meet at least once a year. India will host the second meeting of South Asian Speakers’ Forum in 2017.

The Bangladesh Summit was convened and organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and was hosted by the Bangladesh Parliament with technical support from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 

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