No Tobacco Day: Campaign sought to discourage smoking

Rahman said according to a study about 20% of heart diseases and several brain disorders were caused by smoking

LAHORE:

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Faizur Rahman on Saturday stressed the need for a country-wide campaign to discourage the youth from smoking.

He was speaking at a ceremony to distribute prizes among the winners of a poster competition arranged by the hospital on occasion of the World No Tobacco Day.

Rahman said according to a study about 20 per cent of heart diseases and several brain disorders were caused by smoking.

The hospital had received 6,000 posters designed by school children from across the country.

SKMH chief executive officer Faisal Sultan was the chief guest.

At a seminar in Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (INMOL), Consultant Oncologist Zafar Alauddin said smoking caused at least 100,000 deaths a year in the country.

He said according to a recent State Bank of Pakistan report Rs250 billion were spent in the country on sale of 64 billion cigarettes in fiscal year 2014-15.

He said there were over 4,000 chemical compounds in cigarette smoke. Of these, he said, 69 were known to have caused cancer.

He said 90 per cent of lung cancer cases diagnosed every year in the world were linked to smoking. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer, he added.

He said the impression that smoking could cause just lung cancer was false. “It can cause cancer in any body part,” he said.

He said illicit trade in cigarettes had increased in Pakistan over the years and was expected to be causing around Rs20 billion a year loss to the national exchequer.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2015.