ISLAMABAD: A team of `Tobacco Smoke Free Capital` visited Saint Thomas Church in Sector G-7/2 on Sunday to create awareness among people against the hazards of using tobacco.

The visit was part of a campaign held in connection with No Tobacco Day which is observed on May 31 every year.

Reverend Emmanuel Loorene welcomed the team and allowed it to speak against the use of tobacco during the Urdu and English services.

Deputy Director General (Health) and Project Director Dr Minhajus Siraj, while talking to Dawn, said over 600 people participated in the services held in the church.

`We established a stall there and also distributed literature among theparticipants to inform them about the hazards of tobacco,` he said.

`The reverend of the church also informed the participants about tobacco so hopefully people would understand the issue and will keep away from smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco,` he added.

`Some foreigners also participated in the service and the team also got the opportunity to inform them about the dangers of use of tobacco,` he said.

Yaqoob Masih, who participated in the service, said that although majority of the people know that smoking was injurious to health, they still did not stop smoking.

`I think I will never be able to quit smoking but I have been ensuring that my son does not get into this habit.

There should be a law that prohibits sale of cigarettes to children. And if there already is a law it should beimplemented,` he said.

`I don`t remember if people ever came to the slums and churches to speak on the hazards of using tobacco.

Teams should frequently visit the slums because majority of the residents there use tobacco,` he said.

Dr Minhaj said the recentlylaunched Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) indicated that each Pakistani adult smokes 4,500 cigarettes on an average, every year. With around 20 million smokers, the nation consumes roughly 90 billion of these sticks every year.

`However the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was able to collect taxes on around 68 billion sticks only last year, leaving a huge portion of around 22 billion cigarette sticks, manufactured/smuggled and sold in the country without tax levy and without health hazards` warnings,` he added.