Event

The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus will host a Professorial Inaugural Lecture on Tuesday 23rd September, 2008 at Amphitheatre A, Mount Hope Medical Sciences Complex. Professor Murti will be presenting his lecture entitled “I Love Tobacco, Is it Harmful to my Mouth?” at 5:30 p.m.

Professor Murti will discuss the history of the tobacco plant and how it has existed for thousands of years in South America. When Christopher Columbus landed in the New World on October 12^th 1492, he was offered golden tobacco leaves, but he threw them away. Some of his crew members picked up the leaves and brought them back to the New World. Since then the use of tobacco has spread with alarming rapidity in diverse innovative forms all over the world. Whilst a layman in the modern era knows tobacco use is pleasurable, perhaps even harmful in a general sense, not many users are cognizant of the adverse oral health impact to a user. Professor Murti has worked on these aspects extensively for over two decades. His presentation will outline the evidence from his research on what harm it can do to the mouth and whether such deleterious effects could be minimised or even eliminated with suitably devised strategies.