PESHAWAR: The Khyber Medical University (KMU) is conducting two research studies on smokeless tobacco to assess implementation of measures under the WHO’s Framework Convention for Tobacco Control concerning tobacco supply chains and look into the prevention of uptake of smokeless tobacco among the youth as well as adults.

The projects titled “Smokeless Tobacco Control in Pakistan-STOP” and “Addressing Smokeless Tobacco Use and Building Research Capacity in South Asia-ASTRA” have been funded by Germany- and UK-based organisations, a press release said on Saturday.

The STOP project is being carried out in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology-BIPS, Germany, while ASTRA comprises a global health research consortium of 11 universities from the UK, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research, UK.

Two foreign-funded projects to enhance research capacity in Pakistan

The Aga Khan University from Pakistan is also a collaborating partner in the ASTRA study.

Prof Hajo Zeeb from the University of Bremen is the principal investigator for the STOP study, while Prof Kamran Siddiqi from the University of York is the director of the consortium.

KMU’s director research Dr Zohaib Khan will lead the STOP study in Pakistan besides looking after the multi-country “supply chain” research component of ASTRA.

The study will predominantly focus on the smokeless tobacco supply chain actors such as sellers, farmers and raw tobacco dealers. The study aims to assess the extent to which the articles of the WHO’s Framework Convention for Tobacco Control are being implemented on the smokeless tobacco supply chains and come up with policy solutions for better implementation of the framework.

Apart from doing policy research, the ASTRA study will look into the prevention of uptake of smokeless tobacco among the youth as well as the cessation of the habit among adults. Additionally, ASTRA will test behavioural and medical interventions that can aid in the cessation of smokeless tobacco.

A key feature of both the projects is that they will focus on enhancing the research capacity in Pakistan and South Asian countries. Three PhD studentships and one Post-Doc position at KMU are already being supported under the umbrella of these two projects.

According to the WHO, products like naswar, paan with tobacco and gutkha contain more than 30 cancer-causing agents. The use of these smokeless tobacco products has become a social norm in Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, partly due to a lack of stringent smokeless tobacco control legislation.

These products largely go unregulated and in some cases evade the tax net. It is estimated that over 13 per cent of the Pakistani population are using smokeless tobacco in some form.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2018