Abstract
World Health Organization (WHO) South‐East Asia region (SEAR) is home to nearly 90% of global smokeless tobacco (SLT) users that is over 250 million from among 300 million SLT users in the world. SLT is chewed, sucked, snuffed orally and nasally, sipped or gargled and applied on teeth and gums as dentifrice. Myriad varieties of SLT products for each of these are available in countries of the WHO SEAR. Among all SLT products, traditionally betel quid has been the most commonly used product in most countries, including Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. However, Khainee, a mixture of tobacco with slaked lime, is used most commonly in India and Nepal. Nearly, 5% of the adult population use tobacco as dentifrice in Bangladesh and India. Most of the SLT products used in countries of SEAR are found to be mutagenic, carcinogenic, cardiotoxic and contain heavy metals.
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