Pakistan’s fight against tobacco is getting harder
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Illustration by Aisha Nabi.
Pakistan made a commitment in 2005, when it signed the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to reduce tobacco consumption and ensure the right of people to the highest standards of health.
At the moment, 19.1% of people, over the age of 15 years, in the country use tobacco in any form as per the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an American non-profit organization that advocates for reducing tobacco consumption.
Not only that the Campaign calculates that tobacco kills 118,000 people in Pakistan every year.
Separately, smoking-related illness cost the country more than Rs615 billion per annum, according to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
Economic burden of tobacco disease, death tops Rs615bln
Business
April 25, 2021
LAHORE: Pakistan, with 24 million active tobacco users, is among world’s top tobacco-consuming nations and the economic burden of related diseases is relatively huge here, findings of a study showed on Monday.
The study titled “The Economic Cost Of Tobacco-Induced Diseases in Pakistan” was released in April 2021 by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) with the financial support of the University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Institute for Health Research and Policy.
According to a survey tobacco industry pays taxes in billions, which helps it exert influence on government policies especially those related to taxation.
Economic burden of tobacco disease, death tops Rs615bln thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Economic burden of tobacco disease, death tops Rs615bln thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.