World No Tobacco Day..

[Maha Khan]

Today,is world No Tobacco Day..According to a report,numbers of smokers are increasing day by day..women&young girls are also the victims of this bad habit..once,i went to a private hospital in new garden town lhr,i was told by the receptionist that mam(doctor)was in a meeting,so you had to wait..after 20 minutes,door was opened by a young lady doctor,but i was shocked to see that she was not busy in meeting but was busy in smoking..its really pathetic situation..what circumstances can lead a person towards smoking,even after knowing that its the mother of all diseases like cancer,..
regards,

[Zoyee]

32% males and 6 % females are smokers in Pakistan
By By Saher Baloch

Efforts to eliminate the use of tobacco, though being sporadic, were started in Pakistan with a lot of fanfare but these died down after a few months without yielding any long lasting results.

The state on its part promulgated the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non Smokers Health Ordinance 2002, on October 15, 2002 and affirmed that the use of tobacco smoking would be banned in public places. However, after eight years of the promulgation there is no progress as the ordinance has not been spoken about after a shift in regime.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that tobacco use is the leading cause of death worldwide as it kills more than five million people a year (an average of one person every six seconds) and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths.

According to the statistics of WHO published in 2008, presently 32 per cent males and 6 per cent females are smokers in Pakistan. The overall prevalence of smoking among youth in Pakistan is between 10 to 15 per cent which is above the global standards put forth by WHO.

Dr Javaid A Khan, Professor and Head of the Pulmonary and Critical Care at the Aga Khan University Hospital said that the reason no such campaigns were successful was that health does not top the priority list of the state.

“Moreover, every year the state earns around 80 billion rupees from the profits earned from tobacco sales which may have played a part in the sluggish anti tobacco campaign.”

Speaking about the prevalence of the diseases in Pakistan, Dr Khan said that 40 per cent are cancer related in which lung cancer comes first followed by mouth cancer.

“The point is not to share statistics but to show that what we want for ourselves as a nation” said Dr Khan as he went on to add that in other countries the price of cigarettes is higher so that people can avoid smoking but in Pakistan it ranges around at Rs7.10 per peck. “Moreover it can also be bought loosely without a person bothering to buy a whole pack of cigarettes.”

This year theme of the World No Tobacco Day is ‘Tobacco and Gender,’ in which doctors are trying to finds out the number of female smokers in our population. “Though they are few in numbers, it is good that they are not much into smoking.”

With the dearth of proper health care facilities available for the general public, Dr Khan said that people should protect themselves against diseases which are preventable.

He suggested that public places be made smoke free by not including a separate ‘smoking section’ for the smokers, rather restricting the use of smoking altogether. “The amount of damage to passive smoking does is irreversible and keeping smokers in a separate area, in restaurants and malls, is not going to protect the non smokers. The smoke re-circulates itself and does the damage.”

Quoting a research done by AKU on May 31, 2009, he said that the level of smoke in restaurants and public places was 40 times higher than in open spaces.

“The Ministry of Health needs to send a strong message to all hotel chains, restaurant owners, banks, hospitals and educational institutions, asking them to implement the no smoking law. At the same time, the use of misleading terms like light or mild on cigarette packs must be banned,” he suggested.

Presently, a fine ranging between Rs1, 000 to Rs100, 000 is applicable on violators, but the general apathy is that nobody bothers to check laws or take a stand against such practices that continue to take the lives of thousands, he lamented.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=242183
Regards,