LAHORE: Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) ran a comprehensive awareness campaign on World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday to highlight the issue especially amongst youth with the title “Jab Cigarette Jalta hy to Cancer Palta hy”.
The anti-tobacco campaign run by SKMCH&RC also covers educational institutes across Pakistan and makes the youth more aware about the effects of smoking by lectures from experienced doctors, said a statement.
According to Shaukat Khanum Hospital statistics, nearly 40 per cent cancers in adult males at the hospital can be linked with the use of tobacco. It is the single most preventable cause of death, poverty and illness worldwide, it said.
“Tobacco kills nearly six million people a year worldwide and will kill up to 1 billion people in this century. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco and more than 600,000 of those that die globally each year are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke, while nearly 80 per cent of the world’s more than one billion smokers live in low and middle-income countries like Pakistan.”
In Pakistan, nearly 33 of males and 6 per cent of females smoke, it said.
The hospital warned that a high incidence of lung cancer is associated with smoking tobacco and it can also cause cancer in other parts of the body such as the bladder, kidneys, uterus, cervix, breast, pancreas, colon, and various types of lips and oral cavity cancers.
