200,000 die of smoking-related diseases every year in country

LAHORE:Smoking is the second leading cause of death worldwide after high blood pressure. Tobacco smoke contains over 60 cancer-causing chemicals. The most damaging components of tobacco smoke are tar, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and free radicals. Long-term smoking causes cancer of lung, mouth, nose and throat, etc. Every year more than 200,000 people die due to diseases caused by smoking in Pakistan.

Postgraduate Medical Institute Principal Prof Al-Fareed Zafar while taking to the media representatives highlighted that every year in Pakistan, around 1,200 to 1,500 children under the age of 18 start smoking. Therefore, if this trend continues to increase, the rate of heart and lung diseases in the country will also increase to an alarming extent. The number of smokers in Pakistan has increased significantly and 30 million people are suffering from the habit of smoking cigarettes.

Principal PGMI said that a smoker dies 15 years before his average age because one cigarette shortens a person's life by 8 minutes due to the presence of more than 4,000 harmful components in it and with this, millions of people die every year due to dangerous diseases like heart and lung cancer due to smoking. Prof Al-Freed said that smoking makes the human body hollow. Effects like mouth cancer, lung cancer, heart diseases, brain stroke and diabetes are increasing from tobacco use. He stressed on creating awareness among the general public about dangers of smoking, along with increasing the prices.