Govt must intervene to Safe Children from Deadly Products of Tobacco Industry

ISLAMABAD: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) raised alarms on the reports of Tobacco Industry moving to regularize Heated Tobacco Devices, a move which health activists believe will put health of Pakistani children in grave danger. Malik Imran Ahmed, Country Head, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), stated that since Pakistan’s independence 75 years ago, there hasn’t been a single day where tobacco industry hasn’t directly hurt our children. Tobacco Industry needs children as replacement smokers to swap for the people who lose their lives due to tobacco consumption. This industry believes that life of Pakistani children is cheap and meaningless therefore they try all possible means to earn money at the expense of children’s health. Whether it is deceptive and misleading campaigns to gain more costumers or direct interfering in public policy, the industry tries to throw dirt in our eyes. An industry whose products are responsible for loss of 170,000 lives every year, is trying to launch more deadly products only because it believes it can get away with this by paying a negligible tax – which is no way year the damage it causes.-PNP