Vijay Tiwari, 52, gave up his lucrative business after undergoing a painful surgery, six cycles of chemotherapy, and 36 cycles of radiation while battling oral cancer.A 52-year-old cancer survivor, who once owned a thriving gutkha-manufacturing business and blames his one-time profession for the cancer, has revealed that extremely harmful chemicals are used as cheaper substitutes for real flavours such as kesar, eliachi and gulab.Vijay Tiwari, who gave up the gutkha fragrance manufacturing business after being diagnosed with oral cancer in 2011, said that magnesium carbonate, gambier (used instead of kattha and contains metals) and several other non-food grade additives are being used to enhance gutkha’s flavour, as manufacturers cannot afford to use the real things.A 2012 report by the Indian Journal of Medical Research had also pointed out that the seemingly ‘innocuous’ tobacco preparations in the form of paan masalas, gutkha, khaini, surti or mouth fresheners contain various harmful substances such as tobacco, betel nut, sugar-coated fennel, saccharine and metals such as silver, unknown flavouring agents and undeclared spices in unknown quantities.Every one in the gutkha business “had to cheat”, said Tiwari at the national conference on Tobacco and Health on Monday, where experts from Tata Memorial Hospital, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Cancer Institute released the first report on global use and public health impact of smokeless tobacco.“You think you can get an actual kesarflavoured tobacco at merely a rupee?” Tiwari said. “A kg of kesar costs Rs 1.6 lakh but its chemical substitute costs merely Rs 2,300 per kg. Real eliachi (cardamom) costs Rs 19,000 per kg as against Rs 1,500 for the chemical flavour. The most original rose flavour, known as ruh gulaab, costs Rs 12 lakh per kg and its substitute costs only Rs 25,000 for a kg. With such difference in costs, no gutkha manufacturer uses real fragrances,” he said.Tiwari started eating gutkha at a very early age because his business demanded that he “tasted the product”. He gradually got addicted to gutkha and ate around 20 packets a day. After undergoing apainful surgery that changed his facial structure, more than six cycles of chemotherapy and 36 cycles of radiation at Parel’s Tata Memorial Hospital, Tiwari decided that he did not want to be a part of the gutkha industry.“I refused all big orders for which we had taken advanced payments, suffered losses and still switched to a less profitable perfume and ittar manufacturing business,” he said.Head and neck surgeon from Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, said that all these flavours are made from non-food grade chemicals from China. “Tobacco, combined with these harmful chemicals, is devastating,” Chaturvedi said.24/7 ‘quit line’ for addictsThe central government is launching a 24/7 ‘quit line’ in a month's time. The helpline will be manned by counsellors, who will interact with tobacco addicts facing difficulty in quitting. The helpline will be backed by cessation centres in district hospitals across the country. “The helpline in is final stages. At first we will have counselling in Hindi and English. However the plan is to offer counselling in all languages,” said Amal Pushp, director of National Tobacco Control Programme of the Health Ministry.