‘No Tobacco Day’ was observed by the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and students central association of Dr. RPGMC Tanda on Thursday.
Principal Dr. R.P. Govt. Medical College Tanda, Anil Chauhan, who was chief guest on the occasion said that the day is celebrated all over the world on May 31 and various activities are conducted around this date to spread awareness about harmful effects of tobacco consumption.
He said that the theme for this year is “Raise taxes on tobacco”. A large number of medical, nursing and paramedical students attended the event that included a poster competition which was held in the OPD complex so as to make the patients and their relatives in the waiting area aware of ill effects of tobacco.
He also delivered an awareness message for the participants encouraging them to educate the community about this deadly addiction.
Thereafter there were educational talks by faculties from various departments. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Rekha Bansal informed that world wide 3 million deaths occur annually due to smoking that means 1 death every eight seconds. She said that in India there were around 7 Lac deaths per year due to smoking and around 9 Lac deaths per year due to all forms of tobacco use. She said that the most commonly used form of tobacco in Himachal Pradesh is bidi. She further added that every year around 100 patients of lung cancer are diagnosed in the department of pulmonary medicine by her due to bidi smoking among the population of Kangra and adjoining districts.
The first prize winners in the poster making competition among GNM first year were Sapna, Alka, Kanchan, Shikha and Nisha and second prize winners among the MBBS batch 2011 were Tenzin Namdol, Kanupriya and Vandana.