Faculty members and students of the Institute of Dental Sciences (IDS), SOA’s faculty of Dental Sciences, in collaboration with Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police, conducted an oral cancer awareness campaign at 15 traffic posts of Bhubaneswar city on Tuesday coinciding with the World No Tobacco Day.

Teams deployed at various traffic junctions distributed leaflets highlighting the most important causes of oral cancer, signs and symptoms of the disease to detect the same at an early stage and pointers to quit tobacco.

The Commissioner of Police Mr. S.K. Priyadarshi inaugurated the program at the conference hall of his office in the presence of Mr. Umashankar Dash, Additional Commissioner of Police, Mr. Prateek Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. P.K.Jena, Deputy Commissioner of Police (HQ) and Mr. Swastik Panda, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

Prof. Neeta Mohanty, Dean of IDS, addressed the meeting as also Prof. Nachieketa K. Sharma, Director, University Outreach Program and Program Coordinator for NSS, SOA, Mr. Prabhudatta Subudhi, Prof. Subhendu Narayan Mishra and Prof. Srikanta Kumar Dhar.

Subsequently, Dr. Mohanty submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Odisha, Prof. Ganeshi Lal urging the government to take steps to curb rampant use of tobacco products. A copy of the memorandum was also submitted to the Commissioner of Police.

The program was organised by Dr. Chinmay Sahoo, state President, Indian Medical Association-Junior Doctors’ Network (IMA-JDN), Dr. Abhijit Upadhyay National Council Member, IMA-JDN, Dr. Nitish Kumar Dhal, state Secretary, IMA-JDN, Dr. Rajeev Parida of IDS, Mr. Ayush Jasoria, President, Rotary E-Club, Mr. Pratik Das of IDS and Ms. Adyashree Priyadarshini.