Cancer Society of Multan here on Thursday organise a rally to mark the World No Tobacco Day 2012. The day was observed with a pledge to continue efforts for creation of tobacco free society so as to check burden of diseases. This year's the theme is "Tobacco Industry Interference," focusing on the need to counter the tobacco industry's increasingly aggressive efforts to undermine the Who Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Who FCTC).
They also distributed the pamphlets on the side effects of smoking and showed the pictures of a number of cancer patients for the awareness. To mark the day, health professionals, para-medical staff, nurses, medical and nursing students and social workers participated in walks in Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh and other parts of the country in a bid to raise awareness among the public about hazardous effects of smoking that is not only hitting hard to smokers and their families but also putting burden on economies on the developing and poor countries due to surge in their health budgets.
Seminars, workshops and scientific sessions were held as a part of celebrations. Health professionals told Business Recorder that tobacco kills one in 10 adults world-wide and one person every six seconds. While the number of smokers has dipped in the developed nations, 80 per cent of the smokers live in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan.
According to the Who, tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of mortality. The global tobacco smoking will cause the life of nearly six million people each year, of which more than 0.6 million people exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless we act quickly, it will cause the lives of up to eight million people by 2030, of which more than 80 per cent smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. According to them, one cigarette contains 4,000 chemicals, of which at least 50 cause cancer. Tobacco kills half of its users and is the second leading cause of death in the world after hypertension. As per estimates, in high-income countries up to 15 per cent of the healthcare budget is spent on dealing with tobacco-related diseases.