ISLAMABAD: Since efforts to enlarge the pictorial warning on cigarette cartons have failed in Pakistan, the World Lung Foundation (WLF) has come forward to launch the first ever anti-tobacco campaign in the country, focusing on the health dangers associated with tobacco.

In the first phase, which will begin on November 2, people will be informed of the dangers of tobacco, while the second phase will target the government and sensitise parliamentarians about why the pictorial warning should be enlarged.

In February 2015, Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar announced that the size of the pictorial warning on cigarette packets would be increased from 40 to 85 per cent of the packet.

It was also announced that the tobacco industry would be directed to introduce new packaging from May 31. However, the announcement was never implemented, allegedly due to pressure from the tobacco industry.

Moreover, the tobacco industry claimed that enlarging the size of the pictorial warning would result in an increase in the smuggling of cigarettes and that there was no data available that confirmed that pictorial warnings discouraged people from smoking.

The campaign is being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of National Health Services with technical and financial support from WLF. The inaugural ceremony was held on Friday at a local hotel.

The campaign features a public service message called ‘Tobacco is hollowing you Out’ which highlights the illnesses caused by tobacco use, such as lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and mouth cancer.

The message ‘Tobacco kills – quit today!’ will also be part of the campaign. The concept was originally developed by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and has been used effectively in Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and Vietnam among other countries.

Tobacco Control Cell project manager Mohammad Javed told Dawn that the first phase of the campaign, based on warning images, would begin on November 2.

“Within one month of the campaign, people will be sensitised to the dangers of tobacco, and upon the completion of the campaign, an evaluation survey will be held to see if people have started quitting smoking because of the image-based campaign,” he said.

“In its second phase, on the basis of the survey, WLF will begin a campaign to sensitise the government and parliamentarians to the enlargement of pictorial warnings from 40 to 85 per cent. The ministry has been collaborating in the first phase but the second phase will be conducted with civil society,” Mr Javed said.

Health ministry deputy director Dr Samra Mazhar said the campaign would bring Pakistan in line with other countries who are informing the youth about the dangers of tobacco.

A message from the WLF senior vice-president of policy and communications was also read at the event. She said the campaign was being carried out to show how tobacco use harms virtually every organ in the human body.

“The recent Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) report confirmed that smokers in Pakistan are aware that smoking cases harm, but too few are translating this into an intention to quit. Graphic campaigns will help the youth quit smoking.”

She added: “Real synergies will be achieved and lives saved by using anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and graphic warnings on tobacco packaging – countering misinformation from the tobacco industry, raising awareness of the actual harms of tobacco across the population.”

The GATS Pakistan 2014 survey found that 31.8 per cent of adult men and 5.8 per cent of women use tobacco in some form. About 22.2 per cent of men and 2.1 per cent of women currently smoke tobacco.

And while nearly 88 per cent of smokers believe that smoking causes serious illness, only a quarter (24.7 per cent) have tried to quit in the past year and only 22.3 per cent planned to, or were thinking about quitting.

According to the WLF Tobacco Atlas, tobacco use is the cause of 12.2 per cent of deaths among men and 4.5 per cent of deaths among women, and kills 2,000 Pakistanis every week.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2015

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