HYDERABAD, May 31: Around 5 million people died throughout the world every year due to smoking, said Sindh Health Services Director-General Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi said referring to statistics.

Speaking at a seminar in connection with “NO-Tobacco Day”, he said excessive use of tobacco led to lungs cancer. The even was organized under the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare at a local hotel here on Wednesday.

He urged people to stop the sale of cigarettes and severely criticized advertisements being telecast and published in newspapers.

Provincial coordinator of the programme Dr Qazi Mujtaba Kamal, Deputy national coordinator Dr Shafi Malik and others also spoke on the occasion.

SUKKUR: Smoking is a social disease and it is wrong of smokers to think that the habit can help release tension. On the contrary it destroys their vital organs such as lungs and heart, say speakers.

They were expressing their views at a seminar organized by Human Development Society in collaboration with District Health Department to mark the World No Tobacco Day at the office of executive district officer health on Wednesday.

They dwelt at length on the injurious effects of smoking and advised people, particularly youngsters, to refrain from the bad habit which they said was mainly responsible for their poor health.

The smokers wrongly assume they are smoking away their tension but once the habit becomes hardened they find it increasingly difficult to give it up, they observed.

EDO Health Dr Hafizur Rehman and others spoke on the importance of the day.

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