Amitabh Bachchan urged to drop pan masala ad campaign by NGO

A national anti-tobacco organisation has urged Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to withdraw from an advertising campaign promoting pan masala.

Panaji: A national anti-tobacco organisation has urged Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to withdraw from an advertising campaign promoting pan masala, saying that the move would help wean away youngsters from getting hooked to tobacco addiction.

In a letter to Bachchan, Shekhar Salkar, President, National Organisation for Eradication of Tobacco, said that medical research has proved that addiction to tobacco and pan masala decays the health of the citizens, especially the youth, and said that since he (Bachchan) is the government brand ambassador for the high profile pulse polio campaign, he should drop out from the pan masala ads as soon as possible.

"Pan (betel leaf) can act as a direct carcinogenic. Recent research has shown that the substances in betel quid could change into carcinogens in the body, leading to oral cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) accept the scientific evidence that chewing betel quids (pan) is carcinogenic for humans," the letter to Bachchan said.