Smoking prevention and World No Tobacco Day
May 2009

Smoking prevention campaigns are effective in saving human lives but as well billions in smoking related care.

The efforts against this major scourge should be intensified and relentless.    

The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 31. This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.

According to the World Health Organization the tobacco key facts are:

1. Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.
    
2. There are more than one billion smokers in the world.
    
3. Globally, use of tobacco products is increasing, although it is decreasing in high-income countries.
    
4. Almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke.
    
5. The epidemic is shifting to the developing world.
    
6. More than 80% of the world's smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
    
7. Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year - an average of one person every six seconds - and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.
    
8. Tobacco kills up to half of all users.
    
9. It is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of deaths in the world.

Because there is a lag of several years between when people start using tobacco and when their health suffers, the epidemic of disease and death has just begun. WHO emphasizes that:

1. 100 million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.
    
2. Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million a year by 2030, and 80% of those deaths will occur in the developing world.

The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2009 is "Tobacco Health Warnings", with an emphasis on the picture warnings that have been shown to be particularly effective at making people aware of the health risks of tobacco use and convincing them to quit.

More and more countries are fighting back against the epidemic of tobacco by requiring that packages of tobacco show the dangers of the product's use, as called for in guidelines to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The World Health Organization provides us with valuable and interesting information about the reasons for using picture warning:

1. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death. More than five million people die from the effects of tobacco every year — more than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. It is the only legal consumer product that kills when used exactly as the manufacturer intends. Up to half of all smokers will die from a tobacco-related disease. Second-hand smoke harms everyone who is exposed to it.
    
2. Tobacco companies spend tens of millions of dollars every year turning new users into addicts and keeping current users from quitting. Through advertising and promotional campaigns, including the use of carefully crafted package designs, the tobacco industry continues to divert attention from the deadly effects of its products.
    
3. More and more countries are fighting back by requiring that tobacco packages graphically show the dangers of tobacco, as called for in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. They use the MPOWER technical assistance package developed by WHO to help meet their commitments under this international treaty.
    
4. Effective health warnings, especially those that include pictures, have been proven to motivate users to quit and to reduce the appeal of tobacco for those who are not yet addicted. Despite this fact, 9 out of 10 people live in countries that do not require warnings with pictures on tobacco packages.
    
5. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance. Warning people about its true risks can go a long way towards reducing tobacco addiction. Requiring warnings on tobacco packages is a simple, cheap and effective strategy that can vastly reduce tobacco use and save lives.

WHO stresses out that now is the time to act. Everyone should join forces in an effort to protect the present and future generations from the disastrous effects of tobacco use.  
 

Bibliography

1. World No Tobacco Day 2009
2. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2003.
3. Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Guidelines for implementation of Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Packaging and labelling of tobacco products)
   (http://www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_11.pdf, accessed 6 April 2009).
4. WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2008: the MPOWER package.
   Geneva, World Health Organization, 2008.