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Monday, June 03, 2013
25 million Pakistanis risk tobacco-related death
KARACHI: About 25 million people in Pakistan smoke and according to an estimate around half of them will die of tobacco-related diseases, said Head of Dental Public Health Fatima Jinnah Dental College (FJDC) Dr Syed Hussain Askary.According to World Health Organisation (WHO), globally 5.4 million deaths are caused every year due to tobacco use and by 2030 there will be more than 8 million deaths every year. Unfortunately, 80 percent of these deaths will be in developing countries like Pakistan, said Dr Askary.
FJDC observed Tobacco Control Week to mark World No Tobacco Day. President Pakistan Dental Association (PDA) Prof Dr Naveed Rashid, Principal FJDC Prof Dr Tasleem Hosein, and Head of Oral Pathology Dr Gulrukh Askary also showed keen interest in the activities.
Leaders and experts in the field presented lasted research and information, and provided training to over 1000 attendees. The seminar highlighted that tobacco use leads to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attack, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer, cancers of lungs and mouth and pancreatic cancer.
It is also the number of cause of bladder cancer. The high prevalence of oral cancer has been linked to tobacco use, particularly in conjunction with chewing betel quid or Paan. While oral cancer is the eleventh most common cancer worldwide, in Pakistan oral cancer is the second most common cancer after lung cancer in males and breast cancer in females. Tobacco is therefore responsible for the two most common cancers in males in Pakistan.
Tobacco-induced oral diseases also include periodontal disease, tooth loss and congenital defects. Dr Hussain Askary informed that dentists are playing a very important role in lessening tobacco use in the population, especially among youth of the country.
Dentists have special advantages in tobacco prevention and cessation, as they build patient interest in tobacco cessation by showing the actual tobacco effects in the mouth, said Dr Askary. They also give advice on the health effects of tobacco and usually succeed in preventing it at an early stage, he concluded. ppi
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk