LAHORE, Aug 19: The Punjab government has banned smoking in all prisons of the province.

Punjab Prisons Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor announced this at a workshop on “Tobacco smoking – A preventable epidemic” at the University of Health Sciences here on Tuesday.

The minister said the level of awareness about the hazards of smoking, responsibilities and the initiatives taken by the government for tobacco control was extremely low among masses. He said there was a need to evolve an effective strategy for the implementation of the existing laws and government initiatives taken to control the epidemic of tobacco smoking.

UHS vice-chancellor Prof Malik Husain Mubbashar said smoking was a behaviour-related disorder and there was a need to establish a multi-sectoral task force to evolve strategies for tackling this menace. Prof Mubbashar said three factors were involved in this problem which included personality, environment and availability of substance.

He said so-called western pseudo-cults had changed our age old traditions and values which created a vacuum in the personality of our children. To fill this vacuum they resorted to smoking and other forms of substance abuse. He said 38 per cent of population was affected by smoking, especially young people. He added that 42 per cent of global disease burden was related to behavioural disorders.

Prof Mubbashar said a meaningful programme involving various departments of government should be launched to deal with the problem of smoking.

WHO’s Shahzad Alam Khan said according to statistics nearly 38 per cent of the total population of Punjab smoked cigarettes or used tobacco in other forms, tobacco smoke reaching more than 95 per cent of the population. He further said an estimated 60,000 people die of smoking in Pakistan every year.

He said smoking caused 5.4 million deaths every year in the world. “Approximately 1.8 billion young people (aged 10-24) live in our world today with more than 85 per cent found in developing countries.”

Dr Agha Mahboob of Tobacco Control Cell, Ministry of Health, Islamabad, said more than 80 per cent of the world’s smokers lived in low and middle income countries. Smoking was among 10 major risk factors, as identified by WHO, leading to more than 23 types of cancers including that of mouth, nose, lungs and voice box. He also said research had shown that men who smoked had a significantly higher risk of developing impotence.

He said an estimated 1,200 young Pakistanis between the age of 6 and 15 years took up smoking every year whereas use of `shisha’ amongst the youth and adolescents was an emerging health risk.

Advocate Jawad Hasan said the federal government promulgated an ordinance in 2002 for the prohibition of smoking but it was not being implemented.

Punjab Director General Health Services Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry said: “It is our moral duty to prohibit smoking at all public places, especially hospitals and universities.”