Areca Nut Essay

INTRODUCTION

Areca nut/betel nut is the fourth most common addictive product after tobacco, alcohol and caffeine. The word ‘areca’ is derived from the Malay word adakka or from adakeya (Indian).1 In the South East Asian region (SEAR), with respect to smokeless tobacco (SLT) consumption, India ranks second after Myanmar.2 Currently 10% of the world population or nearly 700 million individuals globally might be areca nut consumers.3 The consumption of areca nut is seen to be almost on par with SLT in the SEAR. Areca nut is commonly known as supari in India, as puwak in Sri Lanka, as gua in Bangladesh, as mak in Thailand, as pinang in Malaysia, as daka in Papua New Guinea, pugua in Guam and as Kun-ywet in Myanmar.4
Areca nut is the seed obtained from the ripe fruit of the tropical palm, Areca catechu; the fruit is initially either sun-dried, heat-cured or fermented, followed by shelling, to obtain the “nut” for oral consumption.3 Areca nut is consumed either alone or in combination with SLT and other additives such as slaked lime.
Similar to tobacco, areca nut has also been categorized as a group I carcinogen by the

GATS – 2 reported data on consumption of non-tobacco products (including areca nut) i.e. 8.7 % individuals consumed betel quid without tobacco, 8% consumed areca nut and 4.8% individuals were found to consume pan masala without tobacco.7 Kammardi et al, 2012, reported an increase in the consumption of areca nut from 2.5 lakh tons in 1991 to 5.2 lakh tons in 2010, owing to the diversity in the available areca nut products, with an approximate increase of 5% every year.8 An early age of initiation of areca nut usage alone has also been reported, examples: Kotwal et al, 2005 (11.74% among high school students of two schools in New Delhi), Khandelwal et al, 2012 (27.06% among middle school students in