Form Child Tobacco Cessation Centres to counsel addicted kids: HC

Madurai: Expressing anguish over school students getting addicted to a banned tobacco product called 'Cool Lip,' Madras high court directed Tamil Nadu govt to establish Child Tobacco Cessation Centres in all districts with experts to counsel and treat addicted children. The court also directed the union govt to issue orders to ban them.

"Extreme emergency looms. There is a sudden spurt of children using tobacco products, specifically a product named 'Cool Lip,'" Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy said, earlier this week.

He directed authorities to constitute a two-member tobacco monitoring committee consisting of a teacher and one volunteer from PTA in all schools to periodically inspect school premises and the vicinity and inform police station/food safety officer concerned. A mobile app too can be developed to upload the information. State and district-level committees shall be constituted to supervise the school committees, he said.

The judge directed the state to provide a toll-free number or create a website for people to report sale of tobacco products. School education department officials can take a decision to issue a circular to periodically check students' bags in schools discreetly. Schools shall take students to cancer hospitals to create awareness about the ill effects of using tobacco, the judge observed. "The mafia of manufacturers, distributors and sellers is targeting school children and they want to catch them young so that they become lifelong consumers. As per the Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2019 data, 8.5% of school students in the age group of 13 to 15 consume tobacco. It is estimated that 5,500 children are initiated to tobacco consumption every day and 55% of them get completely addicted to it before the age of 20," the judge observed.

"State govts are bound to comply with directions and, therefore, the Central govt shall consider the grave nature of the situation and issue further directions under Section 86 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The wide use, immense popularity and appeal to the children and the unique nature of these new dipping/filter tobacco products shall be taken into consideration," Justice Chakravarthy observed.