Tobacco-related Diseases Kill Over 160,000 Pakistanis Every Year

Fakhir Rizvi Published March 20, 2018 | 03:50 PM

Every year more than 160,000 people are killed by tobacco-caused diseases in Pakistan, a new report of American Cancer Society claimed on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Mar, 2018 ) :Every year more than 160,000 people are killed by tobacco-caused diseases in Pakistan, a new report of American Cancer Society claimed on Tuesday.

The report said that in year 2016, 16.99%, more men die in Pakistan than on average in medium- Human Development Index�(HDI) countries while 6.92% more women die in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries.

It said that 125,000 children of age 10-14 years continue to use tobacco each day while 41.9% more men smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium- Human Development Index�(HDI) countries. It added even though fewer women smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium HDI countries, there are still more than 29,43,500 women who smoke cigarettes each day, making it an ongoing and dire public health threat.

The report claimed that boys (age from 10-14) using tobacco daily with average of 0.86%. Even though fewer boys smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries, there are still more than 86,300 boys who smoke cigarettes each day, making it an ongoing and dire public health threat while 0.

42% more girls smoke in Pakistan than on average in medium-HDI countries.

It said that the economic cost of smoking in Pakistan amounts to 1,43,208 million rupee. This includes direct costs related to healthcare expenditures and indirect costs related to lost productivity due to early mortality and morbidity.

It said that Pakistan had made progress on tobacco control in recent years. However, more concrete steps are required to stop people becoming sick needlessly, and stop mounting the cost to society from tobacco use.

The report suggested more steps to make the proven tobacco control tools work for citizens' wellbeing including raise taxes on tobacco items with WHO benchmark of minimum 70%, enforce bans on tobacco advertising and declaring all public places completely smoke-free.