ARI Newsletter April 2022 (May 18, 2022)

We are in May 2022. Again in Pakistan, we are hearing the demands of imposing higher taxes on tobacco use to discourse cigarette smoking. As the federal and provincial governments will be announcing budgets in June, the tobacco control activists are again making demands for increasing tax on tobacco.

Tobacco Harm Reduction Can Help Pakistan Successfully Fight Smoking Epidemic (April 25, 2022)

Over the last four years, ARI has been trying to find the answer to Pakistan's combustible smoking epidemic. This problem, despite all efforts to control tobacco use, is only increasing. We believe the answer is in making Tobacco harm reduction part of the national efforts to control smoking prevalence or in fact end combustible smoking.

Tobacco Company Reports for Full Year 2021 Demonstrate Inconsistent Progress (April 18, 2022)

The first Tobacco Transformation Index found that a small group of tobacco companies made public commitments to harm reduction, but none had shifted their focus enough to ensure the accelerated decline of cigarettes and other high-risk products.

THR: A Historic Opportunity for Our Health & Our Planet (April 12, 2022)

World Health Day is celebrated annually on 7 April, which was the founding date of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1948. Each year focuses on a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world.

Newsletter March 2022 (April 11, 2022)

SUKKUR, March 31: Effective and affordable smoking cessation services along with tobacco harm reduction as part of national tobacco control efforts can help to reduce combustible smoking prevalence in Pakistan.

Newsletter February 2022 (March 07, 2022)

Today Pakistan has nearly 29 million users of tobacco, up from 23.9 million estimated in 2014. Tobacco is consumed in 45.5% of the households, more in poor (48.8%) than in rich (37.9%) households. The majority of these users are smokers. More than two-thirds of the people (72.5%) who work indoors in Pakistan are exposed to secondhand smoke. Annually the economic cost of smoking for the country has been estimated at Rs 615.07 billion, which is 1.6% of GDP.

Pakistan: A challenge to quitting smoking (February 28, 2022)

Tobacco was not cultivated in Pakistan when the country gained freedom. It had to be imported to meet local demand. Tobacco manufacturing began on a trial basis in 1948. Prior to 1968, however, the standard of tobacco cultivation was poor, necessitating massive tobacco imports.

Smoking cessation: A challenge for Pakistan (February 16, 2022)

Globally, tobacco is a leading cause of over 8 million deaths each year and a substantial risk factor for developing illnesses, including lung, liver, oral, and throat cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, and stroke. A major fraction of these deaths-roughly 7 million are caused by direct tobacco use, whereas 1.2 million are caused by secondhand smoke exposure.

Flavor Ban Risks Lives, Warns Cardiologist (January 14, 2022)

Restrictions on flavors in vaping products would be a drastic setback in the battle to reduce the 48,000 Canadian lives lost every year to smoking, according to a new independent study released on Jan. 11.

Ten Underlying Reasons Behind Opposition to Vaping (January 14, 2022)

For decades, tobacco control and public health organizations have sought to stigmatize tobacco, nicotine, smoking and smokers. The invention of vaping, a far safer nicotine alternative which looks like smoking, is a threat to their strongly-held views and the traditional approach.