http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/pakistan.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=145385 http://tobacco.org/news/274109.html While Pakistan is yet to take a decision on reversal of the widely criticised statutory regulatory order (SRO) containing guidelines for the establishment of designated smoking areas (DSA), the United Nations General Assembly set a shining example on November 3 by making the United Nations Headquarters in New York City completely smoke-free. "The UN's leadership sends an important message to all its member countries that smoke-free air is now the norm worldwide," Shoba John, co-chair of the Global Smoke-free Partnership, which supported the resolution, is reported to have said. More than 180 nongovernmental organizations from around the world signed onto a statement of support for a smoke-free UN created by the Global Smoke-free Partnership. This decision brings United Nations General Assembly rules into line with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) The News Pakistan Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%2010%2026%20story_26-10-2008_pg7_6 http://tobacco.org/news/272865.html The Health Ministry on Saturday issued guidelines for the establishment of ‘Designated Smoking Zones’ to exclude smokers from public places and protect the health of non-smokers. The ministry has issued the guidelines under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers’ Health Ordinance, 2002, which allows the Federal government to “issue guidelines for permitting designated smoking areas in premises or places where adequate arrangements are made to protect the health of non-smokers.” The ordinance, however, has had little compliance since its enactment. The guidelines provide that health care establishments, educational institutions, domestic flights, buses, wagons and trains will be absolutely smoke-free. The guidelines further provide that physically separate areas not exceeding one-third of the premises can be designated for smoking, specifying that a smoking area cannot be set up over the entire area of building. Daily Times Pakistan Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=143083 http://tobacco.org/news/272864.html Anti-tobacco activists attending a review meeting on tobacco packaging reforms in Pakistan here on Friday appealed to the president, the prime minister and the minister for health to consider withdrawing the recent statutory regulatory order allowing the establishment of designated smoking areas in the country, and to advance a step further by giving a green signal for printing of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs. The appeal was articulated at a consultative meeting organised by TheNetwork for Consumer Protection, which has recently received a grant of US $280,000 from the Bloomberg Grant Initiative, New York, to implement a project on 'Policy Advocacy and Stakeholder Awareness Building for Packaging Reforms to Reduce Demand for Cigarettes in Pakistan'. The News Pakistan Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://thepost.com.pk/IsbNewsT.aspx?dtlid=189107&catid=17 http://tobacco.org/news/272863.html ISLAMABAD: The printing of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs has been demanded at a consultative meeting on 'Tobacco Packaging Reforms in Pakistan - A Review' arranged by TheNetwork for Consumer Protection. An appeal has been made to the democratically-elected government and the president, prime minister and health minister have been urged to consider withdrawing the recent SRO issued by the Health Ministry on designated areas for cigarette smoking. The Network Executive Coordinator Dr Talib Lashari delivered a detailed presentation on current state of health indicators and tobacco control with specific focus on tobacco packaging reforms in Pakistan. The Post Pakistan Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=143082 http://tobacco.org/news/272862.html It is useless to say that the government has miserably failed to impose the 'Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002' in letter and spirit because there is nothing new about it. We still find people smoking openly in public transport, in offices, the educational institutions and even in the hospitals! The blanket ban on smoking at public places through the 2002 Anti-Smoking Ordinance went up in the smoke as it was hardly implemented except in the airliners! . . . We believe that this proposal to set up 'designated areas' for smoking would help implement the anti-smoking ordinance more forcefully because then the smokers would have little to offer in excuse for violating the law if there are some 'designated areas' in existence in close proximity of where he/she might be found smoking. However, we hope that those responsible for implementing this law would be careful not to allow such 'designated areas' inside the health and educational institutions if the government decided to go ahead with the move. The News Pakistan Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://pakobserver.net/200810/26/Editorial02.asp http://tobacco.org/news/272835.html IT is about a decade now that an awareness campaign coupled with a legal framework was initiated in a bid to discourage smoking especially in public places and offices but there are no indications of any improvement in the situation. Instead, recent surveys and studies by some civil society organizations reveal an increase in the number of smokers in the country. . . . Around 3 million people die around the world every year because of pulmonary or smoking related diseases and about 17,000 of them are from Pakistan. Smoking is not a personal matter as it also risks the health of people around a smoker. There is, therefore, need to create necessary awareness through all available means so as to convince the people especially the young ones to discard smoking. Apart from awareness campaign, the authorities too need to implement the ban on smoking in public places, public transport and offices, as there are widespread reports of the ban being violated with immunity. Pakistan Observer Pakistan Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=141203 http://tobacco.org/news/272591.html According to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008, tobacco tax revenues are more than 4000 times greater than spending on tobacco control in middle-income countries and more than 9000 times greater in lower-income countries. High-income countries collect about 340 times more money in tobacco taxes than they spend on tobacco control. It finds that tobacco taxes could be significantly increased in nearly all countries, providing a source of sustainable funding to implement and enforce MPOWER -- a package of policies and interventions targeting the reversal of the tobacco epidemic. This approach involves the use of six strategies namely, Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; Protect people from tobacco smoke; Offer help to quit tobacco use; Warn about the dangers of tobacco; Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raise taxes on tobacco. The News Pakistan Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=hn&nid=2288&ad=07-10-2008 http://tobacco.org/news/272332.html As many as 75000 people, using tobacco in one form or the other, die every year in Pakistan. "These deaths can be avoided by just giving up the use of tobacco", said Dr Abrar Javed,Head of the cancer department, Nishtar Hospital. Talking to APP here on Monday, he said that smoking, use of beera, hubble bubble (Hukkah), naswar (sniffing of tobacco powder), beeri and betel nut consumed in paan as well as passive smoking, are all very dangerous practices. But he regretted that observing such days has become more of a social ritual and the message is seldom taken seriously by organisations and departments concerned. "Hardly any sincere effort is witnessed to rid the society of this deadly menace." Frontier Post Pakistan Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=140273 http://tobacco.org/news/272211.html In a shocking development, which is being interpreted by health experts and activists as "yet another triumph of the tobacco industry," the Ministry of Health has provided legal cover to the long-disputed smoking lounges across the country by issuing guidelines for the establishment of Designated Smoking Areas (DSAs), 'The News' learnt through well-placed sources here on Thursday. Sharing details, sources working for the ministry confirmed that under Section 5 of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non Smokers Health Ordinance, 2002 (LXXIV of 2002), the Ministry of Health has, on September 6, 2008, notified a statutory regulatory order containing guidelines that permit the creation of DSAs "in premises or places where adequate arrangements are made to protect the health of non-smokers." 'The News' contacted the Director General Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Shaheen Masud, to find out why the Ministry of Health has issued guidelines in contravention of the World Health Organisation's (WHOs) policy of 100 percent smoke-free environments. "Article 8 of the FCTC only talks about protection from exposure to secondhand smoke. However, the WHO guidelines issued in 2007 state that separately ventilated areas and non-smoking areas are not recommended. Now, while the FCTC, which contains no mention of 100 percent smoke-free environments, is binding on all member countries, the WHO guidelines are not," Shaheen responded. The News Pakistan Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%2010%2007%20story_7-10-2008_pg7_50 http://tobacco.org/news/272150.html Up to 75,000 people die in Pakistan every year due to tobacco use, said Nishtar Hospital Cancer Department chief Dr Abrar Javed on Monday. “These deaths can be easily avoided if these people would just stop using tobacco,” he told APP. He said that smoking cigarettes, using beera, hookah, sniffing tobacco, beeri and betel nut consumed in paan, as as well as passive smoking, were all very dangerous to a person’s health. He said it was appalling that smoking was on the rise in third-world countries like Pakistan, while it appeared to be decreasing in the Western world as people became more aware of its consequences and health hazards. He said the widescale ignorance concerning tobacco usage, coupled with media promotion through attractive advertisements by tobacco manufacturers, had resulted in many people, especially the youth, becoming hooked on smoking. The cancer specialist said that a study, conducted in three medical colleges of the country, had discovered that 6.4 percent of all medical students in the northern and southern parts of the country were longtime users of sniffing tobacco or paan containing tobacco. Daily Times Pakistan Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C09%5C27%5Cstory_27-9-2008_pg7_29 http://tobacco.org/news/271665.html Smoking in 2002 caused around five million deaths and if action is not taken, this menace will claim another 10 million lives by 2025. Smoking was also the first of the top 10 killers in 2007, beating Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) with 3.7 million deaths, CVA with 9.5 million, pneumonia with 6.4 million, HIV/AIDS with 4.2 million, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) with 4.2 million, Diarrhea with 4.1 million, prenatal conditions with 4.0 million, Tuberculosis (TB) with 2.8 million, lung cancer with 2.3 million and road traffic accidents with 2 million. Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Head Dr Javaid Khan stated this while addressing a seminar on 'Tobacco Control and Role of Religious Scholars' held at AKUH on Thursday. Daily Times Pakistan Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=134027 http://tobacco.org/news/270895.html The Coalition of Tobacco Control in Pakistan (CTC-Pak) has taken strict notice of the tobacco industry’s growing audacity in terms of violation of tobacco control laws on the one hand, and engagement with the media on the other. In a letter written to the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation, CTC-Pak has drawn attention to how the tobacco industry continues to violate tobacco control laws by finding loopholes in the existing tobacco control ordinance and taking advantage of lack of proper implementation. “The industry keeps on challenging the government’s drive for effective tobacco control in the country by occupying more space in media and resorting to other tactics,” CTC-Pak points out in a press release issued here on Thursday. CTC has urged the implementation cell of the Ministry of Health to take appropriate measures to check the violations of the law by the tobacco industry. The News Pakistan Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/08/local11.htm http://tobacco.org/news/270886.html Unaware of the fact that shisha, or water-pipe smoking, is just as harmful as cigarette smoking, the city’s youth, particularly university-level students, are getting hooked to these hookahs and that too with parental approval, reveals a study. The study, titled ‘Knowledge, attitudes and practice of university students regarding water-pipe smoking in Pakistan,’ was jointly carried out by the Aga Khan University Hospital’s department of pulmonary and critical care medicine and the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS). The findings of the study have also been printed in this month’s issue of The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. DAWN Group of Newspapers Pakistan Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/hookahs-as-harmful-as-cigarette-smoking_10093578.html http://tobacco.org/news/270801.html University-level students are increasingly getting hooked to shisha, water-pipe smoking, in Karachi unaware of the fact that they are as harmful as cigarette, say researchers. Conducted by researchers in the Aga Khan University Hospitals department of pulmonary and critical care medicine and their colleagues from the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), the study suggests that more and more youngsters are getting hooked to such hookahs with parental approval. As many as 450 students-268 male and 182 female-took part in the study, published in The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. While water-pipe smoking was restricted only to rural areas for decades, the researchers say a number of shisha smoking venues have emerged in major cities of Pakistan in the last few years, and that they are increasingly attracting the youth. . . . 78.5 per cent of the participants claimed that their parents had no problem with this practice, while only 21.1 per cent of the parents approved of cigarette smoking. So far as the youths knowledge about the health hazards posed by smoking are concerned, it was found that around 17.6 per cent of the participants were unable to identify even a single harmful effect of water-pipe smoking. Thaindian.com Pakistan Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=133617 http://tobacco.org/news/270640.html The Ministry of Health has finally approved a new set of health warnings for cigarette packs, but these will be introduced with a delay of seven months as the previous timeline of January 1, 2009, has now been extended to July 1, 2009, sources privy to the ministry revealed to 'The News' here on Tuesday. The new health warnings, which will be in place on a six-monthly rotational basis with effect from July 1, are 'Smoking causes throat and mouth cancers,' 'Protect children: do not let them breathe your smoke,' 'Quit smoking, live longer,' and 'Smoking severely harms you and others around you.' Minister for Health Sherry Rehman is reported to have approved the text warnings only a couple of days ago; approval of the same by the Ministry of Law is still awaited. The News Pakistan Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT