KARACHI: Speakers at a ceremony held on Thursday at a local hotel shared concerns over the growing use of tobacco in children, its impact on health and the government’s failure to implement relevant laws.

The sensitisation session on tobacco control was organised by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc).

The event was part of the organisation’s campaign ‘Let’s Make Karachi Smoke Free’.

Highlighting the impact of tobacco use on health, Prof Farah Iqbal, the chairperson of Karachi University’s Psychology Department, said there was more to cigarettes than just nicotine as they contained more than 4,000 chemicals — over 50 of which were known to be toxic in nature.

“As adolescent brains are still developing, nicotine exposure during youth and young adulthood can change the way the brain works, leading to a lifetime of addiction and may cause long-lasting effects including increased impulsivity and mood disorders,” she said.

Smoking was associated with a host of other risky behaviours, she added.

‘Tobacco companies targeting minors’

Khalil Ahmed, the national manager on anti-tobacco control at Sparc, said tobacco companies were targeting minors and women to expand their businesses.

“Smoking habits in youngsters often lead to drug addiction. It’s important that educational institutions play their role in anti-smoking campaigns, creating awareness about the health risks tobacco is associated with,” he noted.

Briefing the audience about his organisation’s effort for tobacco control, Sparc regional manager Zahid Thebo said close collaboration with the government and civil society had been developed to increase taxes on tobacco products to discourage their use.

“We do have laws to stop sale of tobacco products to minors but their implementation is required. There is no doubt that reducing tobacco use results in better health and would help reduce government costs on health,” he said.

Earlier, Kashif Mirza of Sparc shared some data on health hazards of tobacco use in Pakistan and said that the healthcare burden of tobacco use was around Rs143 billion whereas the revenue government generated from tobacco products stood at RsRs83bn.

“So, there is a huge loss of federal exchequer. The volume of illicit trade is very low as claimed by the tobacco industry and the data presented to the government by the industry is also challengeable,” he said.

“It is estimated that tobacco use claims more than 160,000 lives every year in the country. Around 1,000 to 1,200 Pakistani children between the ages of 6-15 years take up smoking every day, says the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) results of 2015,” he pointed out.

Pakistan’s population, according to him, consists of 60 per cent youth below the age of 25 and an alarming number of young people are at risk of getting hooked to tobacco.

“There is a dire need for strict tax reforms and regulatory checks on the sale of cigarettes especially to minors,” he said.

Other speakers emphasised that the government needed to improve enforcement of relevant laws, ensure their compliance and align them with the global best practices.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2019