Kyrgyz farmer Askarbek Duisheyev says he grows and dries tobacco "to make extra money" because of the lack of work in the southwestern Batken region. Once dried, crushed and mixed in with other ingredients, these tobacco leaves are used to make nasvay -- a type of toxic chewing tobacco. Nasvay is very popular in Central Asia and is a key part of the fragile economy in impoverished southern Kyrgyzstan. But chewing the altered tobacco can lead to a long list of health problems, including "gastrointestinal diseases, diseases of the liver and of the oral cavity, lip cancer" explains Saipidin Toroyev, an oncologist at Batken hospital. This leaves the state with the difficult choice of protecting public health or suporting a regional economy. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES