Tobacco use kills 100,000 every year: experts

Tobacco-related diseases killed as many as 100,000 people every year and nearly 1,200 children start smoking every day in Pakistan because of government inaction, health experts agreed on Tuesday. They were addressing a seminar on the 'Role of Media for Advancing Tobacco Control'. Criticising the government inaction on tobacco control laws, Project Co-ordinator of the Network for Consumer Protection Dr Hussan Mehmood said that around 40 percent men and 9 percent women smoked in Pakistan. He said that lack of enforcement, blatant violation of existing tobacco control laws and unregulated tobacco advertising and promotion was regretful.

The network, he said, wanted to remind the government to immediately rotate pictorial health warnings, adding that the deadline was missed in December 2011. Terming tobacco use in public places the most alarming global public health challenge, Communication Officer Asma Qamar said that the district government of Faisalabad needed to take stringent measures to effectively enforce tobacco control laws in public places. Reminding that World No Tobacco Day would be observed on May 31, she said that the network was also launching a campaign to monitor Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship (Taps) and enforcement of the existing tobacco control laws in Faisalabad. The network, she said, had also held an interactive session with the media in the Faisalabad city make national level legislation in line with guidelines of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) treaty.

Terming the situation in Pakistan alarming, Dr Hussan Mehmood said that nearly 1,200 young children started smoking and youth were predominantly using shisha and other smokeless tobacco products such as gutka and snuff. Highlighting media's potential role in the tobacco control drive, speakers called for a stronger partnership with mass media for implementing anti-tobacco use laws. Speakers said that youth constituted 63 percent of the country's population, adding that underage tobacco sale was growing rapidly because of poor implementation of tobacco control policies. Similarly, pictures depicting the true effects on health on cigarette packs were yet to be revised, they added.