World Cancer Day: Fighting 'paan' addiction
Despite sales ban on 'guthka', it is still sold silently in many parts of the city. Photo: Dunya News
(Dunya News) – World Cancer Day is observed on February 4 throughout the world including Pakistan, to raise awareness about various types of cancers.
Usage of betel leaves, and ‘guthka’ in Karachi is highest than anywhere else in Pakistan. These mixtures consumed orally can cause oral cancer and pose several other adverse health issues. In Pakistan, 80 percent of cases are of oral cancer.
Despite sales ban on ‘guthka’, it is still sold silently in many parts of the city, where consumers find their way to illegal sellers of gutka.
Guthka is considered highly addictive. Not only can it cause serious life threatening mouth and throat cancers but it can also increase the chances of stomach ulcers.
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‘Gutka’ is a mixture of various dangerous ingredients that can cause throat and mouth cancers. Photo: Screengrab
According to Dr. Niyaaz Soomro, who is the head of cancer ward in civil hospital Karachi, anything made from areca nut, betel leaves, should be banned immediately.
"If such things are not banned immediately, by 2020 instead of the current 30 million cancer patients there will be 50 million patients, and more than 35 to 40 million will die due to its adverse usage.”
‘Gutka’ is illegally smuggled from India. Photo: Screengrab
Guthka and areca nut are illegally smuggled from India. Government should introduce stricter punishments for those who sell and smuggle it and aware people of its dangers.
For more on this, watch a report by Dunya News below.
