Srinagar, May 31: Around 32 percent men and around one percent women use any form of Tobacco in Jammu and Kashmir and cigarette is main tobacco product used J&K, the National Health and Family Survey-5 (NHFS-5) reveals.

Official data available with news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) has revealed that nearly one-third (32%) of men, but only 1 percent of women, age 15-49 use some form of tobacco.

“Tobacco products mostly used by men are cigarettes (27% ), bidis (4%), hookah and cigars or pipe (2% each). Among women and men, the use of any form of tobacco is slightly higher in rural areas (1.4% for women and 35% for men) than in urban areas (0.7% for women and 24% for men),” the data adds. “Over one-third (35%) of men who smoke cigarettes smoked 5 to 9 cigarettes in the past 24 hours.”

The data states that around 0.2 percent women in Urban and 0.5 in rural areas use cigarettes while as 21.1 men in urban areas and 28.7 percent in rural areas are using cigarette.

“0.1 percent women and 4 percent men in J&K are smoking bidis besides that 0.1 percent women and 2.2 percent men are smoking cigars or pipe in J&K while as  0.7 women and 2.4 percent women are hookah smokers,” it reads. “Around 27 percent cigarette smokers use 5 or below cigarettes per day, 34.7 use 5-9 cigarettes, 29.9 percent use 10-14 cigarettes in 24 hours, 6 percent use 15-24 cigarettes, while as 0.3 percent use 25 or above cigarettes in 24 hours—(KNO)