KARACHI, May 31: At least 1,200 youths take to smoking every day in Pakistan.

This was stated by Prof Fateh Mohammad Burfat of the sociology and criminology department of the University of Karachi at a seminar on the “No Tobacco Day” on Friday.

He added that 40 to 50 per cent of the population above 15 years of age smoked regularly while 10 per cent of the women’s population are smokers.

He said the use of betel nuts and Gutka had assumed an alarming proportion among youths and students, including school-going children.

Dr Shahina Qayyum of the department of chest medicine, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, discussed the harmful effect of smoking on human respiratory tract system and enumerated the health, economic, social, environmental and development cost of smoking, especially among the youth, students, women and working force of the nation.

Scholar Yahya Adhami said that while the literacy rate in the country was on the rise, the role played by a family had continuously been declining and losing its character and purposefulness.

He said a large number of students smoked under the delusion that nicotine helped them build up their intellectual faculties.

Pakistan Society President Dr Saleem Azam said tobacco addiction was very difficult to quit as only five to ten per cent people succeeded in stopping smoking in a year.

Dr Azam said tobacco dependence was like that heroin and cocaine dependence which required treatment over a certain period of time.

He discussed various therapies for smoking-cessation including the first-line pharmacologic therapy which includes bupropion, nicotine gum, patches and nasal sprays. Apart from tailor-made pharmacological therapies, other key factors in successful treatment included avoiding smokers and smoking environment and receiving support from family and friends, he added.

He said alternative therapies like homeopathy, auricular therapy, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, counselling, megnetotherapy, support groups in the smoking-cessation programmes could also be useful.—APP