By Huzefa Muhammad
Smoking, for decades, has remained one of the leading health problems in the world, and in Pakistan, 19.1% percent of adults in the country use tobacco via cigarettes.
Tobacco is harmful in all forms, and no amount of exposure is safe, but the worst possible way one can administer tobacco is via burning it i.e. smoking.
With several initiatives to curb this number, experts at WHO think that this number may not significantly decrease in the coming years.
So, what does this mean for our future? Countries are now moving to less harmful and low-risk alternatives to smoking to create a smoke-free landscape for the times coming ahead.
Among these, the Philippines was one of the first countries from our region to shift to these alternatives.
The country that once stood at a smoking prevalence rate of 29% has now decreased it to 19.5% with an increase in the percentage of people willing to leave smoking, and this is mainly because they have fewer harmful alternatives they can switch to.
These results prove the effectiveness of the enforced key policies on tobacco. If put it in practice in Pakistan, the number of smokers could drastically drop.
The Philippines’ harm reduction policy could definitely be a model for the rest of Asia.
Huzefa Muhammad is a freelance writer with a keen interest in Science and Technology.
“Can” and “Want” are two different things. Blokes here don’t have money to eat but still manage to smoke multiple cigarettes a day.. Our Priorities are F****d up.