Rawalpindi-Civil society has demanded the government to withdraw the legal status of heated tobacco products. They demanded the government not to give license tobacco industry to kill Pakistanis. We will go to any extent to save our people, Dr Samina Matloob said. The tobacco industry is putting people to death for their own interests, said Dr. Ziauddin.
This was stated in a media session organised by Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) at a local hotel in Islamabad. PANAH Secretary General Sanaullah Ghumman hosted the event. Member of the National Assembly, Dr. Samina Matloob was the chief guest of the event.
Dr Samina Matloob said in her address that 66.5% of deaths caused by tobacco are caused by tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer, 53.2% of deaths are due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 21.9% of deaths are due to ischemic heart disease, 15.2% of deaths are due to diabetes mellitus, and it causes 16.8% deaths. Giving concession to heated tobacco would be tantamount to facilitating the destruction of public health, The government should withdraw this decision. Tobacco use costs the national exchequer billions of rupees annually. The government will go to any extent to protect the health of its people.
Sanaullah Ghumman said that PANAH has been working to save its people for the last 40 years and tobacco industry is always using new tactics to kill our people. Currently, the largest segment of the tobacco products market is cigarettes with a volume of 1,526 million dollars. 19.1% of adults (over 15 years of age) currently use tobacco in any form. Among them, 31.8% are males and 5.8% are females. 12.4% of adults smoke. 7.7% use smokeless tobacco. 3% use a pipe (hookah or shisha). About 40% of youth who have ever smoked tried cigarettes before age 10. Tobacco use is deadly. Smoking kills up to half of all lifetime users, so the government has approved the legalization of a new type of tobacco, heated tobacco. This is an unhealthy decision. Heated tobacco is also harmful to health in the same way that cigarettes or any intoxicant can be fatal. Dr Ziauddin said that tobacco kills more than 163 thousand 600 people in Pakistan every year. About 31,000 of these deaths are caused by secondhand smoke. Tobacco accounts for about 16.0% of all male deaths and 4.9% of all female deaths. Overall, 10.9% of all deaths are due to tobacco. Any kind of it is deadly. Tobacco mafia is misleading the government and the public. Hated tobacco also leads to death.