KARACHI, Dec 31: Health professionals speaking at a meeting criticised the federal government for its failure to ensure effective implementation of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance-2002, and demanded a complete and strict ban on smoking at public places.

Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO), National Alliance for Tobacco Control (NATC), Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) and the non-governmental organisations carrying forward the cause spoke at the meeting held here on Tuesday evening. The called for appropriate measures towards prevention of smoking at public places as defined under the ordinance.

NATC Pakistan chairman Dr Javaid Khan said that the government’s recent announcement allowing “designated smoking areas” in restaurants, hotels and other public places would make the implementation of the ordinance further ineffective. “The single most important step the government can take to control the tobacco use in the country is to ensure that smoking is totally prohibited at all public places,” he stressed.

Dr Khan warned that the government’s lenient view towards the tobacco industry could prove destructive for public health and resources. NGOs working in the health sector should come forward and educate society about the hazards of tobacco which was the single largest preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the country, he said, adding that implementation of clean air laws in developed countries had resulted in a remarkable decrease in the rate of mortality associated with tobacco use.

Shahzad Alam of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pakistan expressed concern over the reported attempts to change the existing anti-tobacco laws in Pakistan at the behest of the tobacco industry. The 2002 ordinance, he pointed out, prohibited smoking at all indoor public places.

Dr Ahmad Suleman Haque of the AKUH called for a complete ban on smoking indoors at public places arguing that toxins emitted by smoking within a closed air-conditioned vicinity affected non-smokers present there as they could not escape inhalation of tobacco smoke. Inhalation of tobacco smoke emitted by a tobacco user was linked to lung cancer, heart attacks, asthma, pneumonia and several other diseases, he said.

Sindh president of the Pakistan Chest Society Dr Mosavir Ansari and Secretary-General of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association Dr Syed Ahmar Hamid also spoke. They focused on the role of doctors, paramedics and the media in educating patients about the harmful effects of tobacco and its by-products.

Participants of the meeting urged the education ministry to include a subject on the harmful effects of tobacco in the curriculum for creating awareness of the issue in the younger generation.

A resolution passed at the meeting urged the government to retain the anti-tobacco laws and take appropriate steps for effective implementation of these laws.