Be Careful and Fearful – Corporate engagement to SAVE the youth, Creating TOBACCO MARSHALs

TALK – SAVE THE YOUTH SENSITIZATION TALK – CORPORATE

ONGC – Vasant Kunj Corporate Office

Topic: BE CAREFUL AND FEARFUL – Corporate engagement to SAVE the youth, Creating TOBACCO MARSHALs

Schedule: 21st October 2022 Time: 11:00 – 11:40 pm onwards

ICanCaRe Experts for the CAMP –

Dr. Pawan Gupta M.Ch, Director – Cancer Surgeon – MAX – Patparganj, Vaishali

As a part of the ONGC Cancer Awareness Health Mela organized by Corporate Medical Services, a talk  “BE CAREFUL And FEARFUL” was given by Dr. Pawan Gupta at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation – Vasant Kunj Premises on 21st October 2022.

Dr. Pawan Gupta presented the importance of the SAVE the youth campaign in any organization and having TOBACCO MARSHALs on the premises.

The highlights of his talk included:

  • Tobacco is a disease and needs to be treated as a disease
  • Studies have shown tobacco users in any Institute comprise about 30-40%
  • The majority of the Medical bill by any PSU is because of the chronic ill health of these tobacco users.
  • Establishing tobacco users need centered activities will see a decrease in the medical bill over a period of time. Any investment in this will bring a major change for the corporate.
  • A tobacco user Smoker is a man-hour loss to the company, which if calculated goes in crores.
  • ICanCaRe can partner with the PSU to provide a Sensitization, Assistance, Training, and Enforcement plan for making an Institute Tobacco User Friendly and save crores of rupees for the Institute.
  • The book – How to Make an Institution Tobacco Free authored by Pawan Gupta is a comprehensive guide for the same.
  • He made them aware that quitting tobacco is possible and that one can quit tobacco with proper intervention by a Tobacco Cessation Specialist.
  • Tobacco Chewers are on the rise in PSUs as smoking is not allowed on the premises. People switch to chew.
  • He also highlighted self-examination, by 4 finger test and Chota Daana examination of the oral cavity on regular basis, especially for high-risk who take tobacco in any form.
  • TRISCaRe the innovative mouth opener device was also demonstrated, which is a need for chewers for the unique disease Submucous fibrosis.

Mr. Kashmir Singh Randhawa, Group General Manager, HR who presented the token of appreciation to Dr. Pawan Gupta appreciated the concept of TOBACCO MARSHALs in all the units of ONGC and also for establishing ICanCaRe tobacco users clinic in the units.

Dr. Pranita Das, Head, Corporate Medical Services, more than agrees that the majority of medical bills are spent on tobacco users and more needs to be done to control this menace.

The medical team Dr. Vimal Kumar and Dr. Madhu all agreed and accepted the suggestions to do more on this line. 

ICanCaRe with its expertise in Tobacco Control would be very happy to collaborate with ONGC for making it Tobacco Free.

Present during the talk were 77 ONGC management

Dr. Madhu, a practicing Physician said that cancer will become an epidemic if we don’t take care of it now. It is important that the public should raise their voice and treating doctors’ skills themselves to be able to prescribe to quit tobacco.

The program was nicely conducted and Participants showed interest to become tobacco MARSHAL to have a sustained effect in society against tobacco and drugs.

#MAX #SaveTheYouth #tobaccomarshal #icancare #pawangupta #ongc

Inner Wheel District 307 Kick Starts SAVE The Youth Campaign

EMPOWERING WITH KNOWLEDGE, COLLABORATING TO ENHANCE THE REACH with this in mind Dr. Satinder Nijjar led this meeting as the Chairman, involving all the club Presidents of her district. Tobacco is bad it is general knowledge now, but knowing about it deeply increases the power to convince others. Collaborating and piggybacking on experts can enhance our reach. Empowering so that one can in turn reach out to the masses is the way forward to controlling this dreaded disease.

Mrs. Sonal Bhatia Inner Wheel AC member who achieved the feat of 1000 tobacco Marshals during her tenure as DC of district 310 in 2021-22 showcased her achievement, and the enthusiastic response of presidents to get involved in SAVE the Youth campaign and become tobacco MARSHALs themselves.

The tobacco MARSHAL of 310 have extensively worked in society and conducted numerous programs themselves in their own unique way in their local area that including rallies, painting competitions, school programs, etc.

MIME and Poster making competition was showcased on the 29th of MAY 2022, followed by the National Debate on IMPACT OF WOMEN AS TOBACCO MARSHAL had national dignitaries grace the occasion had laid the foundation and deeper understanding of how to create impacts at the grass root levels. The Training of rural girls NCC cadets as MINI – TOBACCO MARSHAL and Teachers was one such step towards this goal.  But this is just a drop in the large ocean. The tobacco mafia with its willful clever surrogate advertisement is sending cues to the young minds and every day 5500 youths in India are inducted into this net of tobacco use. To control these more people have to rise against this TAMBAKU – ASUR and women are the ones who can do it. With this in mind, Mrs. Sonal Bhatia has raised her bar and intends to create 10000 TOBACCO MARSHAL amongst her inner wheel sisters.

Chief Guest, *Dr. Surjit Kaur*, Inner Wheel Association President and National Representative, herself a doctor said that the health of women should be the priority, a healthy-women means a healthy family, healthy generations, and a healthy society. Tobacco is a national Disaster causing deaths across all ages, all communities, and all social strata. It causes harm not only to the self but to the family, spouse, colleagues, and entire community. She congratulated Mrs. Sonal and Mrs. Satinder to take up this issue at a larger level. She was also really happy to get involved with ICanCaRe as they have the readymade program to escalate the same quickly at the higher level. As the President and National Representative for the Inner Wheel Club, she extended her full support for the program and urged Sonal to introduce the same in other districts as well.

Chief Speaker, *Dr. Pawan Gupta* M.Ch. Director Cancer Surgeon MAX and Founder ICanCaRe said that women are the most affected due to tobacco use in society. Women spite not consuming tobacco exposed to tobacco she is affected at the home, workplace, or even in the community. The effect is – health, social, financial, and much more. Women are the savior of their families, and the next generation as well. If she is empowered with the knowledge she gains the decision and intervention power. It is pertinent that women should rise against this product of MASS destruction. Stronger Women Make a Stronger World.

The inner wheel will rise as the main force in to fight against tobacco. Becoming Tobacco MARSHAL is a step towards this reckoning.

Sonal said she totally believes that inner wheel sisters will be the change makers for this cause and she would look forward to making 10000 Tobacco Marshals and urged all present to partner for this.

All the 140 participants enthusiastically looked forward to becoming tobacco marshals and contributing their bit to society.

To a question whether IW members should call doctors for school programs, Dr. Pawan Gupta said that once trained tobacco MARSHALs will themselves independently conduct school sensitization programs and ICanCaRe would equip them with all the necessary materials.

District Chairman from other districts also participated actively they were DC Leena Chandwani 315, DC Renu Agarwal 311, DC Rita Jha -District 325, DC Dr. P Shri Madhavi Devi, National Editor Veena Swamy 21-22. They support Sonal Bhatia to achieve a goal of 10000 Tobacco MARSHALs and work actively in their districts.

District Secretary Mrs. Manmohan Suri, read the Vote of thanks and Dr. Satinder thanked everyone and concluded the meeting.

Master Of Ceremony, *Mrs. Shruti Agrawal*, MBA, CSO ICanCaRe was praised for her apt conduct of the program.

Tobacco – Enjoy to Suffer

The start of the journey of a tobacco user is of enjoyment. The tobacco is packed and advertised to attract the youth. The flavor, menthol, etc added to tobacco – smoking. chewing or vaping is to make it an enjoyable thing. But the addictive factor added to it is slowly affecting the brain making it irresistible. The youth are attracted to tobacco by surrogate advertisements and misleading advertisements.

TOBACCO ENJOY TO SUFFER

Cigarettes contain 7000 chemicals, of these 200 are severely harmful and 69 are cancer-causing chemicals. In chewing tobacco similar constituents with 28 very harmful carcinogens. The Vaping device also contains chemicals that are leading to new forms of diseases.

No chemicals cause acute injury, it is a journey. In simple words, tobacco will not cause any diseases immediately. Its chronic use will slowly take its toll. Slowly diseases appear and it affects the body, initially reversible and later irreversible. This can be any time from the start of the tobacco journey and depends on many other factors. 200 types of diseases have been documented to be caused by tobacco. Tobacco users will have some or other diseases related to tobacco use, they cannot escape! In India, the introduction of chewing tobacco in the 1970s  and massive advertisements brought a new form of disease Oral and oropharyngeal Cancers and Submucous fibrosis. Now, we are the World’s highest in these diseases.

If you have taken tobacco for some time and you think you are not suffering, you are mistaken. The brain is adapting to your tobacco use, its function starts deteriorating, and to keep up with its pace as a non-tobacco user, the demand for tobacco keeps increasing. You are in a vicious cycle.

The journey starts with some foolish person enticing you to your first tobacco – smoking, chewing, or vaping will soon turn into suffering for yourself and for your relatives. These are the phases of tobacco use that will ultimately end in a painful untimely death.

Your present choice will determine your future life! #knowtobacco to choose your life journey.  

Tobacco is a disease.  Tobacco industries are enticing the new generation with newer forms, packaging, and flavors. One has to be smart not to start. For those who have started it is important they quit the earliest. Quitting needs hand-holding by a certified tobacco cessation specialist. Look for someone around you or call 011-43077695 or download the app- ICanCaRe at http://app.icancare.in

Every day 5500 youths are trapped and they start tobacco. Every day 3700 are dying a painful death. We have to change this scenario. Every unit must have a TOBACCO MARSHAL. Join a Tobacco MARSHAL to SAVE the youth! http://icancare.in/academy/marshal

 (The Author – Dr. Pawan Gupta M.Ch. is Director of Surgical Oncology at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali. Patparganj and Noida. He is the author of the book – Win Over Tobacco Made Easy, Be Smart Do Not Start and is highly recognized for his work on Oral Cancer and Tobacco Cessation. He is the convenor for the Certified Course in Tobacco Cessation at Gujarat University. He launched the #SAVEtheyouth campaign and Tobacco MARSHALs in the community)

 (Critically reviewed by Tobacco MARSHAL Sonal Bhatia, Shubh Bhatia, and Lakshay Srijay Gupta)