Quit smoking for your heart

Islamabad: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) kill more people than any other cause of death worldwide, with tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure contributing to approximately 12% of all heart disease deaths. Tobacco use is the second leading risk factor for CVD, after high blood pressure.

Consultant cardiologist at Shifa International Hospital (SIH) Dr. Yusuf Hasan made these remarks at an awareness campaign organized in connection with World No Tobacco Day here on Thursday. The campaign was organized to highlight the links between the use of tobacco products and cardiovascular diseases and to increase awareness among general public on harmful effects of exposure to second-hand smoke on cardiovascular health.

“The global tobacco epidemic kills more than 7 million people each year, of which close to 9,00,000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest,” Dr. Yusuf said

Consultant pulmonologist SIH Dr. Aftab Akhtar shared that in Pakistan, smoking causes an estimated 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent in women. Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 chemicals, of which 250 are known to be harmful for humans and 70 of them cause cancers. More than 600,000 nonsmokers are dying each year from secondhand smoke wordwide and 1/3rd of them are children, he said.

Dr. Aftab added that various cancers including acute myeloid leukemia, lung cancer, mouth cancer, throat cancer, stomach cancer, bladder cancer, cancer of the cervix, cancer of the esophagus, kidney cancer, cancer of the larynx (voice box) and uterus cancer are caused by direct smoking, secondhand smoking, chewing tobacco and using ‘pan,’ ‘gutka’ or ‘sheesha.

‘“Smokers face an increased risk of certain types of throat and stomach cancers, even years after they quit,” he remarked.