Tobacco control policies in South Asia are not tough enough on smokeless tobacco

Tobacco control policies in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, either do not deal with smokeless tobacco use adequately or the policies are poorly implemented, a study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research has found.1 The researchers looked at whether smokeless tobacco featured in the existing tobacco control policies of the four south Asian countries, to what extent the policies were implemented and what were the barriers to implementation. They conducted 11 interviews with representatives of central government responsible for tobacco control and representatives of civil society organisations advocating strong tobacco control policies, and their …