The rules and regulations stipulated by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) apply to all tobacco products and not only the cigarette, the ministry of health has no plan to check the promotion of Sheesha in leading hotels and high-class cafes of Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and other cities. A single session of water pipe smoking produces smoke equal to that of 100–200 cigarettes.
Studies have linked water pipe smoking to oral, esophageal, gastric, lung and bladder cancer. The World Health Organisation has selected ‘gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women’ as the theme for World No-Tobacco Day this year since controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any comprehensive tobacco control strategy. World No-Tobacco Day 2010 being observed on Monday focuses on the harm which tobacco marketing and smoke do to women. At the same time, it seeks to make men more aware of their responsibility to avoid smoking around the women. Tobacco use by women is a serious, growing problem throughout the world. Women comprise about 20 per cent of the world’s more than 1 billion smokers and this figure is rising. According to WHO, among the industry's many targets of opportunity, women constitute one of the biggest. That's because fewer women than men smoke or chew tobacco. Only about 9 per cent of women smoke, compared with 40 per cent of men. Of the world's over 1 billion smokers, only about 200 million are women. Unfortunately, less than 9 per cent of the world's population is covered by comprehensive advertising bans. Only 5.4 per cent is covered by comprehensive national smoke-free laws. Of over five million people who die each year from tobacco use, approximately 1.5 million are women. Unless urgent action is taken, tobacco use could kill more than eight million people by 2030, of whom 2.5 million would be women. Approximately three-quarters of these female deaths would occur in the low-income and middle-income countries that are least able to absorb such losses. Every one of these premature deaths would have been avoidable. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey shows that tobacco use among girls age 13–15 around the world is increasing and the gap between the rates of girls and boys is getting smaller. In some countries, as many girls now smoke as boys. The data compiled by WHO publications show 26.7 per cent adult male and 2.2 per cent female population smokes cigarette. Among the youth, 1.4 per cent in the age group of 13-15 years smokes cigarette. The tobacco industry is an important source of income for the government. It contributes over Rs27 billion per year, as high as 4.4 per cent of the GDP. Pakistani tobacco is exported to several countries however big buyers are UAE, Germany, Yemen, Lithuania, Indonesia and South Africa.
