Tobacco use is one of the world’s leading preventable causes of death and a major preventable risk factor of noncommunicable diseases like cancer, lung and heart diseases.
The most common type of tobacco product used is manufactured cigarettes, but tobacco is also chewed, sucked or snuffed. Tobacco kills up to half of its users, and more than six million people each year lose their lives as a result of direct tobacco use.
Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke is also harmful to health, causing an estimated 890,000 deaths globally each year.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) is highlighting the damage tobacco causes to lung health: over 40 per cent of all tobacco-related deaths are from lung diseases like cancer, chronic respiratory
diseases and tuberculosis.
Every year, on May 31, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and global partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD).
The annual campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form.
The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2019 is on “tobacco and lung health.”
The campaign will increase awareness on the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease.
The fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people. WHO is calling on countries and partners to increase action to protect people from exposure to tobacco.
“Every year, tobacco kills at least 8 million people. Millions more live with lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma or chronic lung disease caused by tobacco,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Healthy lungs are essential to
living a healthy life. Today – and everyday – you can protect your lungs and those of your friends and family by saying no to tobacco.”
Studies show that few people understand the specific health risks of tobacco use. Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of tobacco, most want to quit. Counselling and medication can more than double the chance that a smoker who
tries to quit will succeed.
Hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings – especially those that include pictures – reduce the number of children who begin smoking and increase the number of smokers who quit.
Graphic warnings can persuade smokers to protect the health of non-smokers by smoking less inside the home and avoiding smoking near children.
Studies carried out after the implementation of pictorial package warnings in Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Thailand consistently show that pictorial warnings significantly increase people’s awareness of the harms of tobacco use.
Mass media campaigns can also reduce tobacco consumption by influencing people to protect non-smokers and convincing youths to stop using tobacco.
Bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship can reduce tobacco consumption.
A comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship could decrease tobacco consumption by an average of about 7 per cent, with some countries experiencing a decline in consumption of up to 16 per cent.
Tobacco taxes are the most cost-effective way to reduce tobacco use, especially among young and poor people. A tax increase that increases tobacco prices by 10 per cent decreases tobacco consumption by about four per cent in high-income countries and about five per cent in low- and middle-income countries.
In 2017, tobacco killed 3.3 million users and people exposed to second-hand smoke from lung-related conditions, including: 1.5 million people dying from chronic respiratory diseases, 1.2 million deaths from cancer (tracheal, bronchus and lung) and 600, 000 deaths from respiratory infections and tuberculosis.
More than 60,000 children aged under 5 die of lower respiratory infections caused by second-hand smoke. Those who live on into adulthood are more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) later in life. (UNI)
