National News

ISLAMABAD, (APP): `World No Tobacco Day’ will be
observed in the country on May 31 (Tuesday), to create awareness
among public about health hazard of tobacco use.
According to World Health Organization, tobacco kills nearly
6 million people each year and more than 5 million of those deaths
are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600,000 are the
result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to
tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths.Up to half of current
users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease. Nearly 80%
of the more than one billion smokers worldwide live in low- and
middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related
illness and death is heaviest, WHO said.
Tobacco users who die prematurely deprive their families of
income, raise the cost of health care and hinder economic
development, said a medical expert while talking to APP.
He said that second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills
restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when people burn
tobacco products such as cigarettes and water pipes.
He said that there are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco
smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than
50 are known to cause cancer. He added there is no safe level of
exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
Commenting on World No Tobacco day, Dr. Hasan Orooj said that
tobacco-related illness is one of the biggest public health threats
the world has ever faced.
He said that in adults, second-hand smoke causes serious
cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart
disease and lung cancer.
In infants, it causes sudden death while in pregnant women, it
causes low birth weight.
He said that tobacco contains a chemical known as nicotine.
Smokers can become addicted to this substance, which means they can
become dependent on it physically and suffer unpleasant symptoms
when it is taken away.