London council appeals to UK government ministers over paan spitting stains

London, Dec 12 (PTI) The local authority in charge of a north-west London borough with a considerable South Asian heritage population has written to British government ministers this week over the “escalating issue of paan spitting”, both a public health concern and a littering issue.  Brent Council has called for an urgent ban on the sale of paan products containing tobacco or betel nut, saying that it has reached the limit of what can be achieved through local enforcement alone.

In its letter addressed to ministers in charge of public health and consumer protection, the council set out the scale of harm caused by paan chewing and spitting, from rising cancer rates to significant damage to town centres and the growth of illegal tobacco supply chains.  “We write on behalf of Brent Council to raise urgent concerns about the escalating issue of paan spitting in our borough," reads the letter.   “Paan is a mixture of ingredients, including betel nut, herbs, spices and often tobacco, wrapped in betel leaf. The mixture is chewed and then spat out, giving the user a narcotic effect.   “The use of both tobacco and betel nut poses serious cancer risks and is especially prevalent within South Asian communities, resulting in a disproportionate health burden for residents in Brent," it states.  The letter, addressed to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention Ashley Dalton and Minister for Employment rights and Consumer Protection Kate Dearden, goes on to point out the “unsightly, blood-red staining” when paan is spat onto pavements and shopfronts which often cannot be removed even with high-pressure cleaning.

Areas including Wembley and Ealing Road within the council are said to experience routine staining.  “The council is calling on the government to introduce a ban on the sale of paan products containing tobacco and betel nut, and to fund a pilot scheme to boost the capacity of our Trading Standards Team to crack down on the illicit tobacco products related to paan, alongside targeted support for our public realm teams to remedy existing damage to streets and buildings,” the letter notes.  “After a decade of efforts to discourage the use of paan, the council has hit the limit of what it can do without national policy change," it adds, inviting the ministers to visit the impacted areas to “witness firsthand the scale and impact of this issue”.  Councillor Krupa Sheth, an Indian-origin cabinet member for public realm and enforcement at Brent Council, stressed that the action they have taken is not about targeting communities but about dealing with individual actions that impact public health.  “When our streets are spat on and our pavements are stained, public health is put at risk and when criminal supply chains are allowed to thrive, it is our residents who pay the price," said Sheth.  “We have expanded enforcement, stepped up street cleaning and used every legal tool we have, but the reality is that councils cannot close national loopholes on their own. That is why the law needs to change – simply put, a product that causes such serious harm simply should not be legally sold on our high streets,” she said.  The council has highlighted how Brent experiences over 90 cases of head and neck cancer per 100,000 people, compared to an England-wide statistic of around 16 cases per 100,000.

This makes the borough one of the worst-affected areas in the country because chewing paan, containing tobacco or betel nut, significantly raises the risk of oral and oesophageal cancers. Betel nut is also internationally recognised as a carcinogen by the World Health Organisation.  Councillor Neil Nerva, Brent Council’s cabinet member for public health and leisure, described the public health picture of the borough as "stark” because residents are over five times more likely to develop head and neck cancer than the national average.

“And chewing paan is a major driver of that risk. This is costing lives and putting huge pressure on the NHS [National Health Service]," said Nerva, appealing to those wanting to quit tobacco, paan or smoking to access the council’s free services.  The council is concerned that despite a “zero-tolerance approach” to paan spitting, education campaigns and enforcement activity, the scale and complexity of the problem continue to grow. PTI AK  GRS GRS