Preventive measures: ‘Smoking kills people and health budget’

The media needs to raise awareness of the hazards of smoking, says Prof Abdul Waheed.

LAHORE:

Smoking should be declared a crime as a smoker is 60 times more susceptible to heart disease than a non-smoker, according to Prof Abdul Waheed, the head of surgery at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

Rather than spend increasingly large sums on building hospitals and buying medicines, the government should focus on prevention, which is much cheaper, said the cardiologist. Curbing smoking would be an important step, as it causes a number of ailments, including heart disease, he said.

The media needs to raise awareness of the hazards of smoking, he said. In Western countries, anti-smoking drives begin at schools and parents are advised to avoid smoking before their children, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2013.