KARACHI, Oct 22: A concerted campaign has been planned against the menace of smoking which is on the increase in the country with figures showing 42 per cent of the adult males being smokers.

This was stated by Dr Nadeem Rizvi, President of Pakistan Chest Society, Sindh, in an interview with the APP here on Tuesday.

He said that his organization, in collaboration with the Pakistan Anti-tobacco Coalition (of which Pakistan Cancer Society is a part) will observe ‘Quit Smoking Day’ on the first of Ramazan throughout the country.

Countrywide tobacco cessation clinics will be organized before Ramazan, he stated.

He pointed out that smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease, disability and premature deaths in the world today.

He recalled that four million people died of tobacco-related diseases last year. If the trend continued, he added, the death toll would rise to 10 million, 70 per cent of the deaths in the developing countries.

Dr Rizvi said that lung cancer is on the top of disease among male in Pakistan with over 90 percent victims being smokers.—APP