Balochistan Point Voice of Nation
By: Abdul Rehman
World No Tobacco Day is celebrated every year on 31st March around the world. According to UN Institute for Health report, Pakistan is not only among the countries with most of the victims of smoking, but it also the largest producer of tobacco.
Dr. Caesar Sajjad, former president of the Pakistan Medical says, “Every year more than a million people suffer from smoking tobacco, which is cancerous. They include mouth, throat, respiratory tract and lung cancer. While those who are accustomed of taking tobacco with tea or pan, suffer from mouth and gastrointestinal.”
According to Dr. Javed Khan, chairman of the Medicine Professor at the Agha Khan Hospital of Karachi and National Alliance for Tobacco Control, there is a large number of smokers in the country who suffer from different types of cancer every year.
According to a research, around 32% of adult male population is involved in smoking, while 8% of the adult women are affected too. The use of tobacco with pan, starch, gut or brown, is almost 54% of the country’s population.
According to Dr. Javed Khan, it is difficult to stop smoking, “The easiest way to leave cigarettes is to choose one day to go without cigarette”, he says.
On the other hand, owners of this industry are benefitting themselves with increasing costs. In 2012, government brought forth an act to control smoking in the country. The act also banned smoking in public places. However, this law goes without implementation.
Published in The Balochistan Point on July 10, 2017
