News
Monday, May 30, 2011
World No Tobacco Day to be observed in LahoreStaff Report
LAHORE: The “World No Tobacco Day” falls on May 31 and the Shaikh Zayed Hospital’s Department of Pulmonology will observe the World No Tobacco Day, which falls tomorrow, to highlight the menace associated with tobacco use.
The department has organised various activities, which include distribution of literature on tobacco use, an awareness walk, pamphlets on hazards of tobacco use, ways of eliminating and controlling tobacco use, and displaying banners outside the hospital to create awareness regarding the issue.
The world’s population constitutes of approximately 1.8 billion young people, between ages of 10 and 24, with more than 85 percent of them living in developing countries. If they survive the vulnerable childhood period, these young people generally lead a healthy life. However, if the increase in tobacco business continues at the current fast rate, aimed at creating a new generation of replacement smokers, the results would be catastrophic.
Currently, 5 million people die each year from the tobacco epidemic across the globe. The death toll is rising relentlessly, and will reach over eight million a year in two decades, with more than 80 percent of those deaths occurring in the developing world.
Until a serious action is taken, it is estimated that up to one billion people could die from tobacco use during the 21st century. In Pakistan, there is a high proportion of elderly population in villages that smoke hookah while in the urban areas, the youth is getting used to tobacco use through the seemingly harmless trend of shisha smoking.
Shisha is a new form of hookah and shisha outlets are increasing in the city day by day. According to a recent survey among university students in Karachi, 41.2 percent male and 16.8 percent females use shisha regularly and the majority thinks shisha is harmless and better than cigarettes. To reverse these trends and protect young people from the harm caused by tobacco, we must move beyond half-measures. We must wind up the tobacco market, ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Instead of cancer, heart diseases and other illnesses, tobacco is falsely associated with desirable qualities such as youthfulness, energy, glamour and sex appeal.
Amongst young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory diseases, addiction to nicotine and the associated risk of other drugs’ usage. Meanwhile, long-term health consequences of smoking include heart diseases and stroke, which could be fatal as well. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke but have no apparent symptoms of the diseases.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is one of the United Nations’ most widely embraced treaties, and the world’s first against tobacco. It is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk