A Deadly Habit That Claims a Life Every Six Seconds

News Desk

Islamabad: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, and Parliamentary Affairs, Murtaza Solangi, said on Tuesday that tobacco smoking was not an addiction but rather a death pill and a threat to human lives at the global level.

Delivering his speech at an event organised to educate children about the harmful impacts of smoking, Solangi said that, like environmental destruction, smoking was also a threat to human lives.

At the outset, the caretaker minister said it was important to ask some important questions regarding the habit of smoking,” he said, adding that the habit of smoking takes the life of one person among ten.

Smoking-Related Deaths Could Jump by 50% by 2030: Minister Murtaza Solangi

Recounting the devastation caused by smoking, he said 100 million people lost their lives due to smoking in the 20th century, and some five million deaths were caused by smoking every year worldwide. He said it was feared that the number of people killed by smoking would increase from five to eight million per year by 2030 if the habit of smoking continued at this intensity.

Appreciating the services of those who have waged war against smoking, he termed them “the anti-smoking heroes.” He said due to business compulsions, tobacco smoking was not mentioned with other harmful substances, but now this tendency should end.

An increase in taxes on the tobacco industry was meant to discourage the tendency to smoke in society, especially among the young generation, he maintained.

He said that, like climate change, tobacco has been badly affecting the daily lives of human beings and increasing health sector expenditures. Solangi pledged to keep on supporting the volunteers fighting against smoking.

BoX

The Dangers of Smoking

Smoking is known to cause a variety of health problems, including

• Lung cancer
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Emphysema
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Cancer of the mouth, throat, and oesophagus
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Cervical cancer
• Leukemia