KARACHI: The major reason behind Pakistan`s failure to tackle the health challenges posed by the massive use of tobacco lies in the lack of political will. The government does not want to lose the huge revenue it earns yearly from tobacco companies. In fact, it has become addicted to tobacco money.

This was stated by a health expert during his talk titled `Tobacco: single most important weapon of mass destruction` organised by the science society of Barret Hodgson University on its Salim Habib campus on Wednesday.

Highlighting the hazards of smoking, Dr Javaid Khan, a senior professor at the pulmonary and critical care department of Aga Khan UniversityHospital (AKUH) and chair of the National Alliance for Tobacco Control, said that increased use of tobacco was a serious issue, killing seven million people worldwide every year. By 2030, 70 per cent of those deaths would occur in the developing countries, he said.

`The economic cost of smoking in Pakistan amounts to Rs143,208m. This includes direct costs related to healthcare expenditures and indirect costs related to lost productivity due to early mortality and morbidity,` he said, adding that indoor pollution caused by smoking was equally harmful and a major problem in many countries, including Pakistan.

While mentioning a list of diseases caused by use of tobacco in different forms, including shisha, he said that smoking caused over 90pc chronic obstructive lung disease cases whosetreatment was very difficult and often patient s ende d up with respiratory failure.

`A recent study reveals that smoking also affects genes. Smoking just a pack of cigarette a day for a year causes 150 genetic mutations each of which might lead to its own cancer,` he informed students.

Dr Khan also spoke about government failure in addressing the tobacco challenge and said that it lacked political will as it did not want to lose on the revenue coming from tobacco companies.

`This explains why it couldn`t take the initiatives which helped other countries to effectively reduce tobacco use, for instance, by increasing taxes on tobacco/cigarettes, implementing the relevant laws, creating awareness and increasing the size of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs,` he said.