The World No Tobacco Day 2017 was marked here like other parts of the world with the theme "tobacco - a threat to development" with a firm resolve to continue efforts for creation of healthy society by overcoming diseases by adopting healthy lifestyle. Different organisations arranged seminars, symposiums and other gatherings to highlight the importance of the day.
Speakers in these functions highlighted that in addition to saving lives and reducing health inequalities, comprehensive tobacco control contains the adverse environmental impact of tobacco growing, manufacturing, trade and consumption.
According to them, tobacco control can break the cycle of poverty, contribute to ending hunger, promote sustainable agriculture and economic growth, and combat climate change. Increasing taxes on tobacco products can also be used to finance universal health coverage and other development programs of the government through awareness among people against diseases and bad habits like smoking.
The speakers said that tobacco use costs national economies enormously through increased health-care costs and decreased productivity. It worsens health inequalities and exacerbates poverty as the poorest people spend less on essentials such as food, education and health care. Some 80 percent of premature deaths from tobacco occur in low or middle-income countries which face increased challenges to achieving their development goals.
Drug Advisory Training Hub and Youth Council for Anti Narcotics (YOCFAN) also arranged a function which was chaired by Dr Saeed Akhtar Ghumman, Chief Executive Officer District Health Authority Lahore Professor Shahnaz Sattar, Dr Ikram-ul-Islam, Dr Rehana Naseem, Ms Kubra Imtiaz, Syed Zulfiqar Hussein and Mohsin Zulfiqar spoke on the occasion.
Consultant, Anti Drug/Narcotics Campaign Syed Zulfiqar Hussain in his speech said that smoking trend has increased in educational institutions across Pakistan. He said around 5,000 people in Pakistan are admitted in the hospitals daily due to tobacco-related diseases, and above 100,000 die every year due to smoking or smoking-related causes.
He informed the audience that smoking causes an estimated 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent in women. "An estimated 90 percent of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking," he said. "Half of the Pakistani men are regular smokers and about 55 percent families in Pakistan have at least one person who smokes."
Dr Saeed Akhtar Ghumman, Chief Executive Officer District Health Authority, in his speech said the government is taking steps to check smoking. He said it was alarming that above 70 percent people with cardiovascular diseases are smokers. Smoking causes failure to taste food, it shrinks arteries and causes various cardiac diseases, he added.