February 2022 Newsletter

This newsletter presents the possibility of a smoke-free Pakistan by highlighting the scale of tobacco use and the gaps in current tobacco-control policy. It states that Pakistan has nearly 29 million tobacco users, tobacco is consumed in many households, and indoor workers face high exposure to secondhand smoke. The annual economic cost of smoking is estimated at Rs615.07 billion, which shows that smoking is not only a health issue but also an economic burden.

The newsletter notes that Pakistan ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, but still lacks a national tobacco-control policy. It also points out that the Prohibition of Smoking in Enclosed Places and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance 2002 does not mention smoking cessation. With limited cessation services, smokers are largely left on their own, and less than 3% successfully quit smoking in a year.

The main article argues that a smoke-free future requires Pakistan to broaden its approach. Tobacco harm reduction should become a central part of efforts to end combustible smoking. The newsletter explains that people smoke for nicotine but suffer disease and death mainly because of smoke, tar, and toxic gases produced by combustion. If smokers can switch to satisfying non-combustible alternatives, most of the disease risk can be avoided.

The newsletter recommends four key steps: making cessation services accessible and affordable, listening to smokers’ views, including tobacco harm reduction in national tobacco-control policy, and sensibly regulating innovative THR products. It also includes an article criticising weak vaping studies, a detailed discussion of Pakistan’s tobacco-control challenge, and an international section on China’s need for national tobacco policy, cessation services, and tobacco harm reduction to meet Healthy China 2030 goals.