“M Cessation” to quit tobacco

Union Health Ministry will launch “Mobile (m) Cessation”, a mobile based intervention for the people who want to quit the habit of tobacco. Govt had already set a target ofreducing tobacco use by 20% by 2020 and 30% by 2025.

HOW TO GET ENROLMENT

• Give a missed call to a particular phone number then person will be asked three to four questions through SMS about their educational qualifications, work status and the age of onset of tobacco use.
• After these details are fed into the system, the tobacco users will start getting three to four messages daily which will counsel and consistently motivate them to quit tobacco

As per Govt data 40% of all cancers, 90% of oral cancers and 30% of TB cases are due to tobacco and 9-10 lakh people die every year due to tobacco habits

Health Ministry also issued a notification to make mandatory for all tobacco products to carry warnings that would cover 85% of the surface of the packets from April 1 next year which is currently 40%.