May 2022 Newsletter

This newsletter reports on the World No Tobacco Day 2022 campaign led by Alternative Research Initiative and its member organizations. The campaign called on the government to provide affordable smoking cessation services and include tobacco harm reduction in national tobacco-control policy. The newsletter notes that Pakistan has around 25 to 30 million tobacco users, while less than 3% of smokers successfully quit in a year.

ARI and its member organizations carried out activities in more than 31 districts across Pakistan. These included banners, posters, seminars, walks, orientation sessions, and meetings. More than 200 banners were displayed in prominent places with messages about affordable quitting support, listening to smokers, and making tobacco harm reduction part of national policy.

The newsletter explains that Pakistan’s tobacco-control efforts need fresh direction. ARI’s project director, Arshad Ali Syed, said tobacco harm reduction can help Pakistan reduce smoking and eventually end combustible smoking. The issue also stresses that smokers need real help and that their views should be included when policies are made.

The newsletter also includes several wider public-health discussions. One article argues that tobacco harm reduction matters and that the United Kingdom’s success in reducing smoking should be understood together with safer nicotine alternatives. Another article reports that the FDA was accused at an e-cigarette summit of poor communication about the difference in risk between cigarettes and lower-risk nicotine products. The issue also discusses the need for a stronger global tobacco-control strategy, computerized registration of tobacco sellers in Islamabad, and comments from ARI members calling for continuous engagement with smokers beyond World No Tobacco Day.