Govt. action imperative to tackle growing beedi incidence

By Dr. U.A. Abeysekera
Over the years Sri Lankan lawmakers have taken progressive steps towards tobacco control and Sri Lanka has been recognised and lauded as a world leader in the global campaign to combat smoking. However, over engineering of regulations to combat smoking is also giving rise to problems that ironically are once again related to smoking and these unexpected outcomes are escaping attention. 

The concerns stem from the government’s indifference and inability to identify beedi as an equally harmful product to health. Just like cigarettes, beedis are manufactured using tobacco leaf and smoking them produces the same degree of physiological harm to smokers and bystanders.

However, there are next to no regulations in Sri Lanka governing the manufacture or sale of beedi or any considerable price restrictions. Consequently, beedis are still sold at Rs.5.00 a stick and Rs.5.50 in some outlets in contrast to a cigarette, which costs well over Rs.65. 

The steady increase in price of cigarettes over the past few years has achieved its desired outcome of reducing cigarette smoking and successive governments must be lauded for efforts to control smoking and enhance public health. But, why is it not paying the same degree of attention to beedi and the ill effects of smoking therein? As a result, many cigarette smokers, particularly in rural Sri Lanka, have now resorted to smoking beedi as opposed to cigarettes to escape the price pinch. This dilutes the good objectives and actions taken with regards to cigarette smoking. 

For instance, rural youth are purchasing two beedis to remove the tobacco within and proceed to roll them into sticks wrapped in white paper to create the illusion they are smoking cigarettes as opposed to beedi. A short discourse with them reveals that cigarettes are far too expensive to purchase but beedis are much easier to obtain. 
However, there are social stigmas related with beedi smokers. To overcome this and to escape the distinct aroma produced by the outer wrapper when smoking a beedi, these youth resort to removing the tendu leaf wrapper on beedi and wrapping them in white paper instead. For just Rs.10, these youth have achieved the very same objectives, outcomes and impacts of a cigarette
priced at Rs.65.

Due to this price disparity— rather, the price advantage enjoyed by beedi— the government will fall short of its public health and safety outcomes and non-communicable diseases will continue to be a serious problem in Sri Lanka. Beedi consumption in Sri Lanka is rampant and is now potentially larger than the cigarette industry. 

Last week, a group of sponsored youth representing a sports club visited shops in Ratnapura to obtain pledges from shopkeepers to stop selling cigarettes, including a poster campaign. However, this does not apply to beedi and these very same shops continue to sell beedi – which thereby defeats the purpose. 

In this event, the youth revealed they had been tasked with this campaign against cigarettes. But what is the point of fighting cigarettes only and allowing the same degree of harm to take place in a different and perhaps more rampant form and turning a blind eye on it?

Non-communicable diseases amount to 75 percent of deaths in Sri Lanka and cause significant disruptions to social and economic activity. One-third of the adult male population are smokers. If we are to become serious about tackling the problem of smoking and public health in Sri Lanka, beedi must be part of this conversation. 

It cannot be assigned to dusty back pages that seldom receive reading, as the beedi industry is generating a great deal of smoke elsewhere in the country. In addition to health, there are significant economic impacts as there are no listed levies on the sale of beedi, whereby consumers can make large purchases with no resulting earnings to the government, except heaping further burden on the health system. 

As detailed above, with significant numbers of cigarette smokers switching to beedi due to price pressure, the government is set to lose a large amount of revenue it does from cigarettes. It is imperative we pay greater attention to the beedi trade in Sri Lanka to ensure a healthier and safer society. 
(Dr. U.A. Abeysekera can be reached via [email protected])