KMU constituent institutes declared tobacco-free

Khyber Medical University (KMU) declared its main campus and all constituent institutes as the tobacco-free zone. The announcement was made at a ceremony attended by Prof Dr Arshad Javaid, KMU Vice-Chancellor as chief guest. Prof Dr Kamran Siddiqui, Global Public Health, University of York, UK, officials of KMU, representatives from the University of York UK, Rawalpindi Medical University, Tobacco Control Cell Pakistan and others attended the event.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Arshad Javaid praised the partnership between the KMU and the Global Public Health group from the University of York UK and other partners for their tireless efforts on addressing the smokeless and smoking tobacco research in Pakistan.

The KMU vice-chancellor said the burden of both smokeless and smoked tobacco was on the rise in most of the low and middle-income countries because of lax tax structure, marketing and advertisement, and easy availability, resulting in tobacco uptake at a very young age. He added that it was, therefore, imperative that our educational institutions took steps to curb tobacco use among the youth.