An alarming increase in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases has been witnessed over the last few years in Pakistan, where young people between 30 and 40 years have started dying due to heart ailments, said experts said on Tuesday. Around 30 to 40 per cent of all deaths were occurring due to heart and cardiovascular […]

Islamabad : The tobacco industry is not phasing out cigarettes or transitioning smokers to reduced-risk alternatives quickly enough, states the first-ever Tobacco Transformation Index launched by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW). As a tool designed to accelerate the reduction of harm caused by tobacco use, the index is a comprehensive evaluation of the […]

Amid the horrible numbers of a global pandemic that has taken nearly one million lives, it’s easy to forget that eight times more people will die from tobacco-related diseases this year, and for years to come. Just as Covid-19 has forced us all to make hard health choices, it’s time to start making hard choices […]

Parliamentary secretary for Ministry of Health says a ‘smoke-free’ country can only be achieved through strict enforcement of regulations There are an estimated 20 million underage smokers across Pakistan, and it is estimated that around 1,200 children between the ages of 6 and 15 start smoking in the country daily, Dr. Nausheen Hamid, the parliamentary […]

Islamabad : Nearly 50% of the global combustible cigarette market is controlled by governments that claim commitment to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which seeks to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure, reveals new research. Titled […]

Smoking may alter genes in a way that creates more cellular entry points for coronavirus, new research suggests. Australian scientists found that smoking just three cigarettes can trigger a flurry of increased activity in the part of the genome that codes for a protein known as ACE2. The protein lies on the surface of many […]

Islamabad : With the draft National Tobacco Control Policy in the process of being finalized, the time is just right for Pakistan to incorporate the concept of harm reduction as a key component of the policy, thereby enabling smokers to quit or to switch over to alternatives that are proven to be less damaging than […]

Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited (PMPKL), which posted an operating loss before tax of Rs2.44 billion for the year ended December 31, 2019, intends to introduce an alternative to cigarettes in Pakistan. ‘The company’s new product, which received a nod from the US authorities last year, can be introduced in Pakistan as well if the government […]

Islamabad : The Ministry of National Health Services will provide progressive support to The Diabetes Centre (TDC) for establishment of the first tobacco cessation clinic in the private sector as part of the larger objective of rescuing the country’s next generation from the scourge of smoking. Formalising the arrangement, a Letter of Intent (LoI) was […]

ISLAMABAD: A meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Mohammad Azam Khan Swati on Monday recommended that all educational institutions in Islamabad should be declared smoke-free zones. The meeting also recommended that CCTV cameras should be installed in all the educational institutions. Besides, the meeting called for healthcare standard operating procedures (SOPs) for schools, […]