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, […]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is one of the 15 largest users of tobacco in the world. Every hour, 12 Pakistanis die of heart attacks largely due to smoking. Moreover, over 50 chemicals used in cigarettes and other tobacco used for smoking cause cancer. As many as 438 people lose their lives every day due to tobacco use, […]

Vaping may be associated with a five to seven times increased risk of Covid-19 among US teenagers and young adults, a study published on Tuesday suggests. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine analyzed nationally representative survey data collected in May from 4,351 participants aged 13–24 years. The findings were published in the Journal […]

As the world scrambles to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, the most devastating infectious disease outbreak to hit the world in decades, the crisis has revealed a great deal about the gaps in our economic and health systems. At the same time, in the choice of its victims, the virus has also revealed another health crisis […]