Published Paper Details:

Smoking affects health of not only the smokers but also the second hand smokers such as their family members, neighbours and the public. In order to decrease the health risks due to tobacco usages, our Indian government has enacted various laws and violence of such laws are punishable under law. The present study deals with Knowledge, awareness and mindset of tobacco users in Madurai East Block. The study is a descriptive study which was conducted in 6 villages covering 841 tobacco users in Madurai East Block which is a suburban area of Madurai. The major findings indicate that about 61.6 % knew that smoking is prohibited in public places, one third of the tobacco users 37.2 % were quite aware of law of prohibition of sale of tobacco products in the vicinity of schools, A high majority (81.9 %) induced others to use tobacco products and did not know that people are getting affected by smoking (77.7 %), more than half of the respondents (58.3 %) were using tobacco products in public places and 54.3 % respondents were very often complaining about the habit of using tobacco products, About two thirds of respondents (67.1 %) did not have the feeling that their children or young members of the family would follow this because they thought that using tobacco might not occur simply by seeing others using tobacco products and 36.1 % of the respondents were addicted to smoke. Addiction to smoke is a state of dependence which is unhealthy that needs to be treated. Knowledge, awareness and mindset are the factors are to be modified to change the behaviour relating to tobacco use. Despite smoking ban, there is lack of public awareness about smoking and tobacco use offence and the fines. So the Act should be implemented in true spirit so as to dissuade the population from falling victims to the Tobacco epidemic.