“Multinational tobacco companies believe that their future lies in third world countries, including Pakistan and they are taking advantage of ignorance of people as well as weak laws to keep people addicted to nicotine for the rest of their lives,” said eminent pulmonologist and anti-tobacco campaigner Prof Nadeem Rizvi.
“Smoking is the major cause of coronary heart disease and other heart ailments, which are the most life-taking ailments in Pakistan while it is a cause of 40 percent of all the cancers in the country,” he said.
However, he went on to say that new technologies such as e-cigarettes and HnB devices are just a well devised trap to hook people onto nicotine, adding that they are as deadly as regular cigarettes. The professor went on to say that nicotine is more addictive than any other drug, including cocaine, opium, heroin and marijuana.
Science indicates otherwise
On the other hand, research data released in 2017 by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine, indicated that vapers are less dependent on their electronic devices, than smokers are on combustible cigarettes.
While, a study published in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health last December, found that e-cigarettes are not only one of the most commonly used cessation tools by American smokers, but more importantly, the most successful.
Spreading Dangerous Misinformation
Sadly, the talk was attended by a large number of doctors, including Executive Director JPMC Dr Seemin Jamali, Dean JPMC Prof Iqbal Afridi, paramedics, students and nurses as well as senior management of the centre. Therefore what could have been a great opportunity to spread information about the relative benefits of using safer alternatives for smoking cessation, instead served to spread further misinformation about the products.
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