VELO Targeting Youth Particularly Women, Children For Nicotine Addiction: PANAH

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Aug, 2022 ) :The experts at a seminar on the occasion of International Youth Day by the Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) on Thursday said Velo, the pouched nicotine alternate for cigarettes was targeting youth particularly women and children for promoting nicotine addiction.

President, PANAH Major General (R) Masood-ur-Rehman Kayani on the occasion said the youth were the backbone of the nations, adding, "Our youth have the potential to bring about social reforms and improve the society." General Secretary PANAH Sanahullah Ghaman said that the Association was working in collaboration with the policy makers to develop policies to prevent heart diseases and the factors that cause such ailments.

Similarly, he said the PANAH was also working to reduce the use of tobacco that was causing over 8 million deaths every year. "More than 7 million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while about 1.2 million are the result of second-hand smoke among non-smokers." He added that in Pakistan, there were more than 22 million smokers or 20 percent of the adult population where men smoke 32 percent more than women.

"PANAH is not only educating people to stop smoking and making Pakistan free of tobacco, but is also working with the government to make the laws." He added that the Association was working to end the scourge of smoking, but the industry was always coming up with tactics to harm the youth. "Recently, a new scourge called 'VELO' has come out which has targeted the youth, especially women and children. It comes in the form of a pouch in a very attractive packaging which contains nicotine which has harmful chemical that inhibits the growth of heart, cancer, and many other diseases."He underlined that there were no proper checks and balances on its use, nor were there any specific laws governing its flow of import and availability across the country. "Even the victim cannot be identified because you will never know if someone in the room is using VELO because there is no visible smoke like that of cigarettes."