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Friday March 29, 2024

Tobacco kills 160,100 people every year

By Shahina Maqbool
March 21, 2018

Islamabad: Tobacco harms the health, the treasury, and the spirit of Pakistan. Every year, more than 160,100 of its people are killed by tobacco-caused disease. Still, more than 125,000 children (10-14 years old) and 14,737,000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day. Complacency in the face of the tobacco epidemic insulates the tobacco industry in Pakistan and ensures that tobacco’s death toll will grow every year.

The above paragraph describes the profile of Pakistan vis-à-vis its half-hearted attempts at turning the tide against tobacco use. According to the sixth edition of the Tobacco Atlas and its companion website—tobaccoatlas.org—tobacco control advocates in Pakistan must reach out to other communities and resources to strengthen their efforts and create change.

For almost two decades The Tobacco Atlas has been turning the most up-to-date global data into compelling and easy-to-understand graphics. Its sixth edition offers a comprehensive guide to key tobacco control issues. The document, which has been produced by the American Cancer Society and Vital Strategies, weaves together two related narratives: the bleak reality of the damage that tobacco causes even before it sprouts from the ground, and an optimistic examination of the evidence-based tools that are available to address this reality.

According to the report, more men (41.9%) smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries. Even though fewer women (3%) smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries, there are still more than 2,943,500 women who smoke cigarettes each day, making it an ongoing and dire public health threat.

The report notes that fewer boys (0.86%) smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries, yet there are still more than 86,300 boys who smoke cigarettes each day. More girls (0.42%) smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries. More men (16.99%) and more women (6.92%) die in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries. It also informs that even though fewer people use smokless tobacco on average in Pakistan, 9,659,700 people still currently use smokeless tobacco.

Highlighting the societal harms of tobacco use, the Tobacco Atlas describes the economic cost of smoking in Pakistan as amounting to Rs. 143,208 million. This includes direct costs related to healthcare expenditures and indirect costs related to lost productivity due to early mortality and morbidity.

The report points out that the combined revenues of the world’s 6 largest tobacco companies in 2016 was more than US $346 billion, 17% larger than the gross national income of Pakistan. “The industry is a powerful force that does not fear the actions of nation-states because of their extensive resources and global market power,” it adds.

The report informs that 129,878 metric tons of tobacco were produced in Pakistan in 2014. However, tobacco growing is only a small fraction of agriculture in Pakistan, with only 0.14% of agricultural land devoted to tobacco cultivation. As many as 69.43 billion cigarettes were produced in Pakistan in 2016. Cigarette imports exceeded cigarette exports in Pakistan in 2016, which hurt the country's trade balance.

Even with reference to excise taxes, Pakistan has failed to meet the World Health Organization’s minimum benchmark of 70% of the retail price of cigarettes as the current taxes stand at 45.79% only.

The Tobacco Atlas also recommends measures for tobacco control interventions; topping the list is the enforcement of bans on all forms of direct and indirect advertising.