By Our correspondent
Zero implementation of pledges made by the government to control tobacco consumption in Pakistan on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2009 has propelled the civil society to shake the Tobacco Control Cell of the Ministry of Health out of its slumber by partnering with it for a national advocacy conference on tobacco control, which has been scheduled for October 28, should the fragile security situation permit.
Organised by TheNetwork for Consumer Protection under the banner of the Bloomberg Grant Initiative that seeks to reduce tobacco consumption in low and middle-income countries, the daylong conference aims to win the goodwill of the policy-makers to prioritise tobacco control on the government’s agenda. The conference will present an overview of the dismal state of implementation of tobacco control laws in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The participants will also initiate a debate on identification and removal of lacunae in the tobacco control legislation 2002 and motivate all stakeholders, ministries, and non-government organisations to accelerate implementation of tobacco control laws in the country.
Secretary Health Khushnood Lashari and Director General Health Dr. Rashid Jooma will chair the opening and closing sessions of the conference, respectively. The conference is expected to bring government officials, consumer organisations, civil society, and the media on board.
Tobacco companies are cranking out cigarettes at the rate of five and a half trillion per year, which means nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman, and child on this planet. Cigarettes are being smoked by over 1.1 billion people, with a declining consumption trend in the developed countries and a rising consumption rate of around 3.4 percent per annum in the developing countries.
In Pakistan, the annual per capita consumption of cigarettes is recorded as 391 cigarettes per adult per year, making it a lucrative market for tobacco companies, which are proactively luring youth towards smoking. Markets like Pakistan are fair grounds for their sales because of the large young illiterate population, loose price controls, sale of cigarette sticks and small packs, and ignorance about the toxic constituents and emissions of cigarettes. An estimated 100,000 people in Pakistan die every year due to tobacco-related diseases such as cancer, heart attack and stroke, among others.