KMU launches smokeless tobacco research projects

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar, has launched two smokeless tobacco research projects titled “Smokeless Tobacco Control in Pakistan - STOP” and “Addressing Smokeless Tobacco Use and Building Research Capacity in South Asia – ASTRA.”

The STOP project is being carried out in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology-BIPS, Germany and is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD.

The ASTRA project comprises a global health research consortium of 11 universities from the UK, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom.

The Aga Khan University from Pakistan is also a collaborating partner in the ASTRA study. Prof. Hajo Zeeb from the University of Bremen is the principal investigator for the STOP study, while Prof Kamran Siddiqi from the University of York is the director of the ASTRA consortium.

Dr Zohaib Khan, the director research at Khyber Medical University, is leading the overall STOP study in Pakistan and will also be leading the multi-country “Supply Chain Research Component” of the ASTRA study. Other researchers involved in the two studies include the Vice-Chancellor of KMU Prof Arshad Javaid, Prof. Ziaul Haq, Dr Naseem Khan, Dr Fayaz Ahmed and Dr Zeeshan Kibria.

The STOP study will predominantly focus on the smokeless tobacco supply chain actors such as sellers, farmers, and raw tobacco dealers. The study aims to assess the extent to which the articles of the WHO’s Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, are being implemented on the smokeless tobacco supply chains, and come up with policy solutions for better implementation of the framework.

Apart from doing policy research, the ASTRA study will look into the prevention of uptake of smokeless tobacco among the youth as well as the cessation of the habit among adults. Additionally, ASTRA will test behavioural and medical interventions that can aid in the cessation of smokeless tobacco.

According to the World Health Organisation, products like naswar, paan with tobacco and gutkha contain more than 30 cancer-causing agents. The use of these smokeless tobacco products has become a social norm in Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, partly due to a lack of stringent smokeless tobacco control legislation.

These products largely go unregulated and in some cases evade the tax net, resulting in cheap and easily accessible products to the masses. It is estimated that more than 13 per cent of the Pakistani population uses smokeless tobacco in some form and that more than 300 million smokeless tobacco users belong to the Indian subcontinent.