Nurse tells Asian community to get 'clued up' about tobacco (From Harrow Times)

Nurse tells Asian community to get 'clued up' about tobacco at Northwick Park hospital

2:23pm Friday 25th November 2011 in News By Suruchi Sharma

A NURSE at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow said the Asian community needs to get “clued up” about tobacco at a mouth cancer exhibition today.

Sapna Mandalia, 36, from Stanmore, works in the Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery department of the hospital and organised the event with colleagues Nikitika Ghimire and Jocelyn Roberts.

The nurses have worked with each other for around three years and decided to put on the exhibition for Mouth Cancer Awareness Month.

The exhibition included a year's worth of tar from cigarettes in a jar, pictures of what the cancer looks like and leaflets with advice to encourage people to seek treatment.

Mrs Mandalia talked to people about the effects of Asian tobacco products such as Paan. She also highlighted the detrimental results of smoking shisha or hookah pipes.

She said: “So many people have no idea about what could happen to them if they have this disease.

"They don’t know how to deal with it and that they could potentially die.

“There are a lot of products out there other than cigarettes including paan and something now called gutkha, which is very popular among the Asian community and is a major cause of cancer in India.

“The Asian community needs to clued up about what this can do to them. The amount of people who die a year from mouth cancer is increasing and there are many who may have it and are not diagnosed yet.”