Nulife tobacco strips to replace cigarettes

The popular notion that smoking reduces stress despite the negatives is apparently true, according to latest research and one school of doctors.

Another popular notion - that nicotine is harmful to the body - is not entirely correct, the same group of doctors hasten to point out.

"The 4,000 toxins present in tobacco and its combustion products are responsible for the vast majority of tobacco-caused disease," explained A G Ghosal, the head of the department of chest medicine in Kolkata's SSKM hospital, said here today.

Small doses of pure nicotine can help smokers quit and this has led to development of Nulife, anicotine replacement therapy (NRT).

Nulife delivers small doses of nicotine to the body through chewing gum or strips attached to the body and this does away with craving for a cigarette when a smoker is trying to quit the habit.

Nicotine when taken in pure form is not very harmful but it is addictive.

If taken in small doses, it can help smokers quit and simultaneously speed up and reduce the pains of the withdrawal syndrome.

Finally, however, a tobacco smoker has to give up the medicine too, but giving up the medicine is much easier than giving up smoking of tobacco, doctors said.

"The cigarette market is around Rs 30,000 crore and around two per cent of smokers are trying to seriously give up smoking. This puts the potential size of NRT market at around Rs 300 crore," explained T Kumar, general manager for marketing at Elder Pharmaceutical Ltd., which has acquired the rights for marketing the product in India from C J Pharmaceuticals.

NuLife would be available at chemists as a chewing gum in two different varieties "" GoodKha for individuals who wish to stop chewable tobacco usage and Eucomint for individuals trying to quit smoking.

A survey of smokers in Kolkata suggested that 64 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women were tobacco users in Kolkata, while the prevalence of tobacco usage was the highest in the age group 35 to 50 years.

The study suggested that 52 per cent men in rural areas were addicted to tobacco.

Nulife would target these users.