KARACHI, May 30: Experts in pulmonary diseases at a seminar on Wednesday observed that half-hearted implementation of anti-tobacco laws was one of the causes behind the increase in tobacco use (smoking and shisha) among women and teenagers.

They said that meaningful realisation, tobacco control policies including smoke-free environments, tobacco marketing bans, graphic warning labels and increased tobacco taxes could help reduce tobacco use to consequently save the lives of men and women from the hazards of smoking.

The seminar was organised by Pakistan Chest Society in connection with World No Tobacco Day, which falls on May 31, with the collaboration of the chest medicine department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Participants of the seminar, largely the postgraduate students and doctors were told that tobacco industry interference was the theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day. The WHO emphasises that the campaign will focus on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry’s brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine global tobacco control efforts, according to an expert.

Additional Commissioner, Karachi, Abdul Wahab Soomro, said that both the government and the civil society and medical community should work for creating awareness on tobacco use hazards and implementation of the relevant laws.

Prof Nadeem Rizvi, head of chest medicine department of JPMC referred to the rising trend of shisha use in Pakistani society and held it as a dangerous source of nicotine inhaling for users. “Shisha is now getting endemic in our parts of the world and people start smoking shisha at the age of 16 to 18, particularly during their college life,” he added, saying that shisha smoking session increases the level of carbon monoxide (a toxic gas which reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood) seven times more than cigarette smoking.

Dr Shahina Qayyum, president of Pakistan Chest Society and in charge of Research Cell at Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, in her presentation on “Women and tobacco” said that tobacco and anti tobacco advertising could have significant effects on the attitudes of young children, adolescents, and young adults toward tobacco use. “Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has ill effects on every stage of life’s continuum,” she remarked.

She said that tobacco use among women was rising while its use among men was falling. “To begin with, there are light cigarettes, which finally got the users addicted of tobacco and nicotine products, which was dangerous,” she added, saying that those who do not smoke have a better chance of living longer.

She said that women comprised 20 per cent of the world’s more than one billion smokers. On average 22 per cent of women in developed countries and 90 per cent of women in developing nations are daily smokers.

According to the data she presented, 1.5 million women die every year from tobacco use; Most (75%) of these women live in low- and middle-income countries. Unless urgent action is taken, tobacco use could kill up to eight million people every year by 2030, of which 2.5 million would be women.

She said that as many girls as boys now smoked in some countries. More girls than boys smoke with the false belief that it is a good way to control weight, she added, saying that women smokers are at a greater risk of developing cervical cancer, osteoporosis, infertility, having children with low birth weights, and they age early.

Dr Javaid A. Khan of AKU pointed out that though scientific research had confirmed that exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) could lead to a plethora of diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, asthma and pneumonia, implementation of the law at the grassroots level in the country was scarce.

Dr Mirza Saifullah Baig of the Dow University of Health Sciences said that tobacco products could harm everyone exposed to it — even non-users — and killed up to half of those who used it as intended.

He mentioned that chewing tobacco was as dangerous as smoking tobacco because the chewable variety had the same addicting substances — nicotine — in even higher concentration. Dr Nausheen Ahmad of JPMC’s chest medicine department also spoke at the seminar.