SOMETHING SWEET TO CHEW ON

You can buy Gutkha in a corner shop for about 20p. On the shelves next to
breath-fresheners and brightly wrapped sweets which attract the children
when they pass by, Gutkha is hard to resist when it is so easily available
to the young. It is selling well, but beneath its innocent gold and red
wrapping, Gutkha can be lethal.

Gutkha is a type of chewing tobacco, popular in India. It is usually
brought back to Britain by young Asians and their parents when they return
from their holidays, but it is also being imported into Britain as greedy
companies cash in on an emerging market.

Part of its marketing appeal to young Asians is that the tobacco is mixed
with sweeteners such as betel, which is a leaf ground down into a powder.

The tobacco can also be mixed with catechu, a type of nut. Among the Asian
population the betel leaf is used as a stimulant and a breath-freshener and
is sometimes used after meals in a sweet or spicy form. The leaf is imbued
with a sacred significance and among some members of the community the leaf
is regarded as a sign of prosperity and longevity, hence its popularity.

Part of Gutkha's seductive danger is that since its introduction among the
BritishAsian population in recent months, the incidence of precancerous
lesions in the mouths of young people is creeping upwards. There are no
official figures as yet but children as young as 12 have been diagnosed
with pre-cancerous lesions as a result of chewing tobacco. Because the
tobacco is chewed and held in the mouth much longer than a cigarette, the
growth rate of the cancers is much faster than other types of cancers
associated with smoking.

Prof Raman Bedi, head of the National Association for Trans cultural Oral
Health at the Eastman Dental Institute in London, has been working with the
World Health Organisation and the British Dental Health Foundation to
educate people about the dangers of chewing tobacco.

Together they have formed an education campaign group, Stop Oral Cancer in
Kids (STOCK), aimed at highlighting the problem within minority ethnic
groups and a degree course to train overseas dentists and dentists in
Britain in cultural aspects of oral health will begin at the Eastman
Institute in October.

"This product is sold in small, brightly coloured packs sometimes showing
photographs of children," explains Prof Bedi. "It is made more attractive
by adding sugar and sweeteners. This is a cynical marketing move aimed at
kids.

"In the past six months there has been a cascade of these new products
targeted at south Asian youths in America, the UK and Australia. Indian
companies are now seeing South Asian youths as a legitimate target for
these products. If there has been targeting by tobacco companies in the
West into the third world, then we are now seeing a reversal of that."

Three thousand people in Britain are diagnosed with mouth cancers each year
and in Asia it is the third most common form of cancer. It used to be a
disease of the elderly Asian population in Britain, but now dentists are
seeing children with small pre-cancerous lesions.

Last week, Trading Standards officers in Birmingham highlighted how easily
children could buy Gutkha. Chewing tobacco is widely available in Britain
but it is against the law to sell tobacco to children under 16. Yet none of
the children (all under 16) whom the Trading Standards officers sent into
shops were refused sales of Gutkha.

Part of the problem is that shopkeepers and parents do not realise that
Gutkha contains tobacco, says Mr Ajmal Masroor, a community development
worker in London. "When parents go into their local shop they see Gutkha as
an alternative to sweets and they believe that if it is sold in a shop that
they know then it is safe," he says.

"They do not recognise the problem and young people are buying it and using
it in the community."

Mr Masroor believes the tradition of chewing tobacco is as dangerous as
taking drugs.

He says that although at present it is a tradition found mainly among older
Asian people, second generation Asians living in Britain who have largely
ignored the practice may be tempted to take up the habit when it is
presented in such a fashionable way: "To introduce it in such a cynical
manner and do nothing to restrict it is a crime. It is a crime of the
Government not to ban it."