The WHO Provincial Operations Officer for Sindh Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi on Friday (June 9) cited several studies from all over the world that categorically proved the hazardous effects of tobacco consumption. He pointed out that starting with a classic ground-breaking 1950 study by Ernest L. Wynder and Evarts A. Graham, a powerful link between lung cancer and smoking was established more than 55 years ago.
At that time, not only the tobacco industry but also even the medical establishment took the findings with a pinch of salt, and it took years for their work to gain wide acceptance. Graham took the findings seriously and gave up smoking in 1951, but died of lung cancer in 1957.
In our neighbouring country India, a study carried out in 2003 revealed that in the country, which is the third largest grower of tobacco in the world, 65 per cent of the men and 38 per cent of the women smoke, he mentioned.
The loss of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) attributed to smoking in 1990 was 1.7 million. New legislation proposed in 2001 includes outlawing smoking in public places, forbidding sale of tobacco to minors, using more prominent health warning labels, and banning advertising at sports and cultural events.
This has, however, not reduced the demand sufficiently, however higher taxes, smuggling control, closing loopholes in the advertising ban, and enforcement of tobacco control laws area could help in this direction.
In another country of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, namely Tunisia, it was found in 2002 that tobacco use was reported by 30.4 per cent of over 25-year- olds; 24.6 per cent smoked cigarettes and 5.8 per cent used traditional products: snuff, chewing tobacco and water-pipe tobacco.
Only 5.2 per cent of the women used tobacco, compared to 55.6 per cent of the men. More people residing in rural areas smoked as compared to their urban counterparts and the percentage of smokers went down as education and income went up. Among men, smoking became less common in the older age groups; while amongst women it peaked in the age group of 35-54 years.
Dr Kazi appreciated the fact that the plan of action for the prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases in Pakistan launched by the First Lady Begum Sehba Musharraf last year contains significant strategies to counter this massive problem.
Furthermore, it was largely due to the efforts of Pakistan's Federal Health Minister and current Chairman of the World Health Assembly, Mohammad Nasir Khan that Pakistan took the momentous decision to ratify the FCTC.
This development also signifies the enormous political commitment available for remedying the situation and the need of the hour is to make this commitment trickle down to the grassroots level in order to bring about a meaningful change in the quality of life of our citizens, he added.
The WHO official also praised the role of the print and electronic media in highlighting the issue from time to time in their crusade against a very powerful lobby by publishing articles, editorials, statements of policy makers and features, particularly during the World No-Tobacco Day and hoped that it would have the requisite impact on the discerning sections of the population, while he termed as critical, the monitoring of the anti-smoking legislation towards achieving the desired results.
The World No Tobacco Day was observed with renewed zeal and vigour all over the country on May 31 this year for the first time after Pakistan ratified the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control.