3.5m Pakistani teens are smokers: expert

PESHAWAR, September 29 (Internews): About 3.5 million youngsters between age group of 15 to 18 in Pakistan are addicted to smoking, the country’s renowned cancer specialist and cardiologist Dr Ilyas Khalil.

In an event to mark the International Heart Day, he revealed that in Pakistan 90 per cent cancer of lungs is caused due to smoking and is considered a silent killer, adding that five million people die of smoking related heart diseases worldwide every year.

Khalil cited a Word Health Organisation report saying there were 400 toxic chemicals being used in cigarettes causing heart, lungs and many other fatal diseases.

“Young people in Pakistan are more prone to smoking. In the long run, this causes health problems like cancer, emphysema, which is breakdown of lung tissue, organ damage and heart diseases,” he said.

These diseases, he said, limit a person’s ability to act normally and it could be fatal. “Tobacco shortens our life by 10 years or more,” Khalil said, adding the statistics showed about 9 out of 10 tobacco users started before they were 18 years old, including Pakistan.

“Most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to get addicted. Smokers not only develop wrinkles and yellow teeth, they also lose bone density that increases their risk of osteoporosis, a condition that causes older people to become bent over and their bones to break more easily.”

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