Chapter 27 International

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International: India and Bangladesh

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In India, 635,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco. Tobacco is responsible

for half of all cancers in men and about 20% of cancers in women. Cigarettes account

for only 18% of tobacco use, bidis for 50% and chewing tobacco the rest. The

"tobacco sector" employs 7 million people, and nearly 10% of the government's

excise tax revenue comes from tobacco.

The Lancet, October 10, 1998, p. 1204

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Annual bidi sales in India are around $1.4 billion; eight are consumed for each

conventional cigarette. A bundle of 25 costs about 8 cents, and they are considered

the poor man's cigarette. Bidi-making employs about 5 million Indian women who

wrap the tobacco in tendu leaf and who typically earn only about 80 cents for a full

day's work making about 1000 bidis, or $18 a month, below average for the country

where the average monthly household income is $40. Even though exports to the

United States have doubled in the last year, exports account for less than 1% of sales.

Wall Street Journal, August 17, 1999, pp. B1 and B4

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The cheap smoking brands for tens of millions of poor people in India and

Bangladesh are bidis, or thin, tapered sticks of tobacco wrapped in a leaf or paper

treated with molasses or artificial fragrance. "Millions of bidis are churned out every

day by a vast army, mainly children, squatting in suffocating sheds across the

subcontinent." Each rolls about 4000 bidis in an eight hour day and is paid just over a

dollar a day for the work.

Panoscope, October 1994, p. 23

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Monday, July 24, 2000

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