May 31, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 30: The Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) on Friday expressed concern over the increasing trend of tobacco advertising through film and fashion industries in Pakistan.

In a statement issued in connection with the No-Tobacco Day being observed on Saturday under the theme “Tobacco-free Films, Tobacco-free Fashion”, the CRCP said tobacco industry was bent upon adding non-smokers to smoking population by using film and fashion industries. This practice particularly induces the youth to smoking, the commission added.

The CRCP secretary general, Mian Abrar Hafeez, said there was evidence to suggest that advertising of cigarettes in film and fashion industries influenced the people more swiftly than other media. He quoted a study carried out by the Centre for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, USA, which showed that eight out of ten highest earning Hollywood films in 1999-00 were those that featured tobacco use.

He regretted that Pakistani films and fashion industries were also increasingly featuring tobacco use, which was a dangerous trend. “The potential of films and fashion media to influence people is greater because they dramatise things and have public appeal.

They attract people by making attractive presentations packaged in popular values and cultural norms,” he said.

The CRCP also expressed concern about the growing number of deaths due to tobacco use, which has reached 4.9 million each year globally.