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Kick the habit, says 'Winston Man'

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

"Tobacco is a killer industry. How can India allow its government to finance and promote such an industry?" asks Hollywood star Alan Landers, who has made several valid suggestions to put curbs on it.

Known as the 'Winston Man' in the late '60s and early '70s for modelling for Winston cigarettes, 57-year old Landers has today dedicated his life to fight against tobacco, holding up his own life as an example before the younger generation.

Being a chain-smoker right from his teenage days, the Hollywood star-cum-model-cum-acting teacher had to undergo two surgeries for lung cancer within a span of five years, by the time he reached 50. In addition, a nerve leading to his vocal cord was cut, while he also suffers from emphysema.

Fifty per cent of smokers will face premature death, he claims, as the tobacco industry uses all kinds of deadly substances, including vinegar, nail polish, toxic acid, ammonia, motor or rocket fuel, cyanide, gasoline, insecticide and even rat poison, besides nicotine.

"Looking back, I am ashamed that I helped promote such a lethal and addictive product among both children and adults. Had I understood then what I now do -- that cigarettes are a poison that kill almost 50 per cent of their users -- I would never have participated in their mass marketing," he says with conviction.

During his tour to India, organised by the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication, Landers has appealed not to conduct any sports event sponsored by the tobacco industry or allow any billboards or advertisements through television, radio or newspapers. "It's blood money," he quips.

Landers wonders how government-controlled financial institutions could hold 34 per cent shares in India's four major tobacco firms while an institution like the Life Insurance Corporation has invested Rs 190 million in a killer industry.

It's ridiculous, he says, that free of cost water and power is provided and export incentives are given to the tobacco industry while around 2000 scientists and technicians are engaged by the agriculture ministry's Tobacco Control Board to help the industry.

While the ministry of finance gives all sorts of concessions to the tobacco industry, he asks why no budgetary allocation is made for an anti-tobacco campaign when the death rate due to tobacco usage is quite high. He also demands passing of a legislation, prohibiting the promotion and use of tobacco in public places, which is pending since 1986.

Equally concerned about six million tobacco growers in the country, Landers feels the government should encourage farmers to divert to another industry by announcing subsidies in those crops. He has also urged the government to file a suit against the tobacco industry, demanding compensation for tobacco victims.

"I now understand some of the shocking facts which reveal how the tobacco industry puts profits over people, stonewalls its criticism and conceals scientific evidence from the public and its customers. I call upon the lawmakers of this country to protect our children from this deadly substance", stated the Hollywood actor-turned-activist.

RELATED WEBSITES:

http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com/stories/1998/01/07/dbodfs7.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/Tobacco/photo_5.html

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