PESHAWAR, Nov 14: Quitting smoking is the first step towards treating chronic pulmonary diseases and the government should strictly implement the ban on smoking.

This was said by Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi, the president of the Frontier chapter of the Pakistan Chest Society, at a press conference held here on Wednesday.

He said that although the ban on smoking at public places and in government offices had been placed in July 2003, smokers had been continuously violating it.

“Smoking is one of the major causes of pulmonary and respiratory diseases in which lungs are affected owing to poisonous chemicals in smoke,” Dr Afridi said.

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared chronic pulmonary diseases, also known as COPD, as the fourth major cause of death. Smoking cigarettes and air pollution were main causes of the COPD, he added.

Around 3 million people die around the world every year because of the COPD and about 17,000 of them are from Pakistan.

Dr Afridi said that medicines used in the treatment of COPD were often not available in hospitals and urged the government to ensure the availability of these medicines in the public sector hospitals.

He said around 400 COPD patients daily got treatment in the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Dr Afridi expressed the need for creating public awareness about chronic pulmonary diseases and other lung infections by smoking and air pollution.

There was a need to educate people on the danger of these diseases, he said. “Smoking is not a personal matter as it also risks the health of people around a smoker,” Dr Afridi said.