Tobacco Control: Current Challenges for Pakistan

Abstract

Tobacco is the single largest preventable cause of death in the world today. According to World Health Organization, the annual death toll attributable to tobacco is expected to rise from the current estimates of 5.4 million per year to 10 million by the year 2025. And over 70% of these deaths would be in the developing countries 1. In most developed countries the prevalence of smoking is on the decline and so are the tobacco related deaths from lung cancer, heart attacks and other diseases1. Unfortunately tobacco use is on the increase in developing countries like Pakistan. Many transnational tobacco companies find Pakistan, a country with over 160 million people, an ideal place to promote their tobacco business. In the National Health Survey of 1996 among adults 36%of male and 9% females were found to be smokers2. If we include the use of tobacco in other forms (smoke-less tobacco) like paan, gutka and naswar then the true prevalence of tobacco users is much higher.