'25 million people are habituated of smoking in Pakistan, 12,00 new smokers join the total daily while one lakh tobacco affected people die everyday.' Quoting a survey report, Sindh Director General, Health, Dr Abdul Sattar Korai said on Friday.
This he said while addressing an important meeting of tobacco control committee Sindh. The Director Nimra, Dr Naeem Ahmed Laghari, Sindh Director public health' Dr Masood Solangi, section officer traffic, Latifabad. Masood Iqbal, Musrat Shaheena, Dr Wali Muhammad Laghari, Dr Rafique Qureshi and Allah Bux also attended the meeting.
The DG Health told the meeting that the survey report revealed that among tobacco affected deaths, 90 percent were related to lungs, 75 percent to respiratory, 40 percent to mouth cancer and 25 percent to heart diseases. He said that a cigarette lessens eleven minutes of its user's life and it was the need of the hour for the organisation concerned, to enforce the ordinance 2002 regarding protection of non-smokers and non-smoking environment in Pakistan in letter and spirit.
Further, he referred to the report's predictions that fast increasing number of tobacco user would cause death of 25 million people till 2025. The Co-ordinator for Sindh Tobacco Control Programme, Musrat Shaheena said that cigarette, gutka, menpuri, betel nut and naswar were the main cause of cancer and were working as a sweet poison that the users must avoid.