An Indian health ministry report was released on Monday, listing the prevalence of beedi smoking, its consequences - both economic and health wise - and public health policy strategies.

The report highlighted that an estimated 100 million people - mostly from the poor and illiterate section of the Indian population- smoke beedi or hand-rolled cigarettes in India. Smoking beedi caused 200,000 tuberculosis deaths, says the report.

The first analytical, scientific and systematic study on the beedi-smoking trend for the year 2004-05 was sponsored by the Indian Union Ministry of Health supported by the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the US Department of Health and Human Sciences.

The study led by Prakash C. Gupta, director of Research at Healis, Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health in Mumbai that supported the study, and Samira Asma observes that though beedi smoking causes the same diseases as cigarette smoking does - lung cancer, oral cancer, heart diseases, lung disease and addiction, it is more harmful than cigarette smoking.

Beedi is the cheaper Asian version of cigarette wherein tobacco is hand-rolled in ‘tendu’ leaves.  Smoking beedi is considered more harmful than cigarette smoking because it contains more tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, carcinogenic hydrocarbons and other toxic and class A carcinogenic substances such as nitro amines (NNN and NNK).  However, beedi has less tobacco than cigarettes.

“In India, beedi smoking contributes substantially to death from tuberculosis,” said Health Secretary Naresh Dayal.