Home is where tobacco exposure begins for children, says Salaam Bombay survey

Mumbai: One in every five fathers in Greater Mumbai uses tobacco. Every second neighbour and close relative whom children observe daily, too, use some form of tobacco.Tobacco use is so deeply embedded in many homes and neighbourhoods that children grow up seeing it as a normal part of everyday life, according to a new survey by NGO Salaam Bombay Foundation among 1,632 adolescents aged 12-14 years across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.This “normalisation” of the tobacco habit, according to Salaam Bombay’s Tshering D. Bhutia, raises concerns about future addiction and India’s mounting oral cancer burden.The surveyed adolescents identified 3,380 tobacco users in their immediate surroundings, indicating that each child was exposed to at least two tobacco users on average. According to the newly released National Family Health Survey-6, over 30% of Maharashtra’s over-15 population has been exposed to tobacco in one form or another.“A child’s first exposure to tobacco is extremely significant because it shapes perception long before experimentation begins. When tobacco use is repeatedly seen within homes or among trusted adults, children are more likely to perceive it as normal and socially acceptable,” according to Bhutia.The foundation survey’s findings are particularly worrying in a country that accounts for one of the world’s highest burdens of oral cancer; it is estimated that annually there are approximately 77,000 incident cases and 52,000 deaths due to oral cancer in India, with tobacco use remaining the leading cause.Nearly one in five adolescents surveyed reported that their father used tobacco. Overall, 21% of the tobacco users identified by children were close family members living in the same household, while 31% were relatives living nearby and 48% were neighbours.Smokeless tobacco emerged as the dominant form of use, accounting for 68% of all tobacco users identified in the survey. Products such as raw tobacco, gutka, mishri, khaini and pan masala were commonly used within households. Smoking products accounted for 21% of users, while 8% consumed both smoked and smokeless tobacco.Salaam Bombay Foundation has been working with adolescents, especially govt school students, since 2002 through its Preventive Health Education Programme across Greater Mumbai. “The study aims to strengthen awareness around tobacco-free homes and encourage wider public health conversations on creating safer environments for children,” according to the study.Bhutia said that such studies are important not only from the perspective of second-hand smoke and health risks, but also because repeated exposure influences attitudes, behaviours and social acceptance around tobacco use. “If such patterns continue unchecked across generations, there is a risk of creating a cycle where tobacco use and addiction become socially inherited and normalised within families and communities.”