International Journal of Social and Economic Research

Various forms of tobacco available are Beedi, Cigars, Cigarettes, Creamy snuffs, Dipping tobaccos, Gutkha, Hookah, Kreteks, Roll-Your-Own Pipe, smoking, Snuff, Snus. The most common smokeless tobacco products are chewing tobacco, naswar, snuff, snus, gutkha and topical tobacco paste.A pre-packaged mixture of areca nut, tobacco, slaked lime, catechu, and flavoring agents is popularly known as Gutkha.Gutka, a dry preparation commercialized since 1975, containing areca nut, slaked lime, catechu, condiments and powdered tobacco, was originally available custom‐mixed from pan vendors. For the last couple of decades, gutka has been available in several brands. A similarly packaged mixture without tobacco, often with an identical brand name, is called pan masala. Oral cancer is one of the most common non-communicable diseases worldwide with an estimated increase of 275,000 new cases each year (Warnakulasuriya, S.: 2009). Oral cancer is the term used for cancers that form in tissues of the oral cavity (the mouth) or the oropharynx (the part of the throat at the back of the mouth). These along with other head and neck cancers are the sixth most prevalent type of cancer in the world and one of the leading causes of death in developing countries. (A Jemal,. et al.: 2011)This sociological study aims at to explore the causative factors associated with gutkha addiction and to know whether the addicts know the composition of gutkha and whether aware of health problems arising out of gutkha addiction.