NOIDA: On the occasion of World No Tobbaco Day on Thursday, the country’s first laboratory to suggest standards for different forms of
tobacco began operations on Thursday on the campus of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Prevention (NICPR) in Noida.
The laboratory is one of three that are being set up in India. The other two are coming up at Mumbai and Guwahati. It’s an initiative of the Union health ministry and NICPR will act as its custodian. It is also the first in South Asia.
“These setups will allow tests for all tobacco products. Initially, we will be testing products for nicotine, nitrites, nitrosamines, etc, and others will gradually follow,” said NICPR director Dr Ravi Mehrotra. “These will also include tobacco-specific nitrosamines, which are Grade 1 carcinogens,” he added.
The facility will start testing
cigarettes and bidis immediately, followed by other tobacco products.
With the testing facility in place, the health ministry can now begin working on a policy for standardisation of components of tobacco products. “We will carry out the research and suggest to the ministry what standards should be followed by manufacturers so that tobacco products are less harmful,” Mehrotra said.
The laboratory, however, will not make disclosures about brands that are tested.
It will have a tie-up with the tobacco testing laboratory in Atlanta and exchange programmes to help researchers share knowledge.
According to the World Health Organisation, India is home to 12% of all smokers in the world, and among the top four users of tobacco.
The Noida facility, whose inauguration at the hands of minister of state for health and family welfare Anupriya Patel, was planned to coincide with World No-Tobacco Day, will now serve as the National Tobacco Testing laboratory.
Set up on the ground floor of NICPR, it has 25 machines that will help researchers conduct tests.