Revenue from tobacco, needs to be balanced against the subsidies given to it by governments. Every increase of tobacco production by one tonne will kill one person in a lifetime. Tobacco takes a heavy toll of 800,000 to 1 million voters in the country every year. Maximum deaths occur between the ages of 45- 55. It needs twice to three times more water than other food crops.
Soil erosion is twice that of food-crops since no weeds grow in tobacco fields.
Vaidya believes campaigns can help children stay off tobacco. He says figures from the small Indian federal province of Goa indicates cigarette sales are downfrom 450 earlier to 350 per headover eight years. Since 1993, he says, Indias campaign against tobacco has been really growing. But reports in the British medical journal 'The Lancet' say that transnational tobacco companies, facing growing curbs in the USA and other affluent countries, are increasingly marketing their products in developing countries. And, more so among women and adolescents.