The 'Spittoon Syndrome': How Effective Will Be the Anti-spitting Initiatives in India?

Chitra Grace (chitragrace@yahoo.co.uk) teaches at the Global Institute of Public Health; Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar (krnayar@gmail.com) is with the Santhigiri Social Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram; Lekha D Bhat (lekhabhatd@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Social Work, Mizoram Central University, Mizoram; Anant Kumar (pandeyanant@gmail.com) teaches at the Xavier Institute of Social Sciences, Ranchi; G Ratheesh Babu (gretheesh@gmail.com) is scientist at the National Virology Unit, Alappuzha; and Muhammed Shaffi (fmshaffi@gmail.com) teaches at the Global Institute of Public Health, Thiruvananthapuram. The board of health hereby adjudges that the deposit of sputum in public places is a nuisance, source of filth, and cause of sickness, and hereby orders that spitting upon the floor, platform, or steps of any rail road or railway station, or car, or from any electric car while said car in the subway or elevated above the surface of the ground, or upon the floor, platform, or steps of any public building, hall, church, theatre, market, or any sidewalk immediately connected with said public places, be, and hereby is, prohibited (Davis Jr 1901: 3031). Whoever expectorates or spits upon any public sidewalk, or upon any place used exclusively or principally by pedestrians, or, except in receptacles provided for the purpose, in or upon any part of any city or town hall, any court house or court room, any public library or museum, any church or theatre, any lecture or music hall, any mill or factory, any hall of any tenement building occupied by five or more families, any school building, any ferry boat or steamboat, any railroad car or elevated railroad car, except a smoking car, any street railway car, any railroad or railway station or waiting room, or on any track, platform or sidewalk connected therewith, and included within the limits thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars. Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century (2003): "The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century," Institute of Medicine, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Washington DC: