"I have never heard that chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer," said Oum Touch, 87, a nun who lives at Wat Lanka who picked up the habit of chewing tobacco from her mother

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008122323344/National-news/Govt-targets-chewing-tobacco.html
Govt targets chewing tobacco
Written by Chhay Channyda
Tuesday, 23 December 2008

Officials warn that tradition could be an enemy in the fight to change
attitudes towards chewing tobacco, a popular activity among Cambodian
women

WHILE the government prepares to tighten its control over cigarettes
through new laws on their promotion and labeling, tradition appears to
be winning the battle to discourage a different type of tobacco
addiction.

"I have never heard that chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer," said
Oum Touch, 87, a nun who lives at Wat Lanka who picked up the habit of
chewing tobacco from her mother.

Roughly 600,000 women in Cambodia, most middle-aged or older, chew
tobacco, while the majority of men prefer to smoke it, according to Dr
Yel Daravuth, national officer for the World Health Organisation's
Tobacco Free Initiative.

But while most women are aware that smoking is unhealthy, knowledge
about the adverse effects of chewing tobacco is still thinly spread.

"Research by the WHO shows that chewing tobacco can cause women to
develop lung and mouth cancer," Yel Daravuth said during a workshop
earlier this month, calling on the government to initiate education
campaigns that warn against the habit.

"Tobacco control that focuses only on cigarettes will not necessarily
address the health risks from other forms of tobacco that are in
widespread use among women and ethnic minorities and that are part of
long-standing cultural, familial and traditional medicine practices,"
he said.

Dr Lim Thaipheang, director of the National Center for Health
Promotion (NCHP), told the Post that while chewing tobacco does not
cause harm to others, "chewing and smoking have the same bad effects".


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....I have never heard that chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer.

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He said that because only a small number of women smoke and chew - and
due to limited financial resources - the government has not yet
started to focus its campaigns on women.

As party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Cambodia
has been working on a draft law on tobacco control that is currently
awaiting approval. The law includes a ban on tobacco advertising,
promotion and sponsorship, the addition of warnings labels on
packaging and the creation of smoke-free areas, but it does not refer
to tobacco chewing.

But it is the potential risks of chewing tobacco, alongside other
traditional habits, that needs promotion.

Wat Lanka nun Oum Touch said she knows nothing about the risks of
chewing tobacco but "would never smoke cigarettes because they go
straight into our bodies and affect the health of others around us",
she said.

The areca nut, better known as the betel nut, is another stimulant
that enjoys widespread popularity among older Cambodians and is
considered to be carcinogenic. As with tobacco, knowledge of its
health effects among Cambodians is often shrouded in folklore.

"I do not know if [it] affects our health, but betel leaf and areca
are important in curing typhoid", said Neth Thos, 63, who has run a
betel nut shop at Boeung Keng Kang market since 1993. "They are
Cambodian traditional medicine."

Lim Thai Pheang said the NCHP had not yet studied the health effects
of betel nut.
.