World No Tobacco Day
(WNTD) is observed around the world every year
on 31 May.
Every year the World
Health Organization (WHO)and global partners celebrate World No
Tobacco Day (WNTD).
Aim:
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. It is
intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco
consumption around the globe. It draws attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to
negative health effects.
WNTD is one
of eight official global public health campaigns marked by
the WHO, along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization
Week, World Tuberculosis Day, World Malaria Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World
AIDS Day.
2019
Theme:
In 2019, WNTD focused on its theme on ‘Tobacco and lung health’. The
negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest
public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million
people a year. More than 7
million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco
use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to
second-hand smoke.
Tobacco:
Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of
the tobacco plant by curing them. More than 70 species of
tobacco are known.
Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking
in cigarettes,
cigars, pipe tobacco, and flavored shisha tobacco. They can
also be consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco and snus.
Tobacco use is a risk factor for many diseases;
especially those affecting the heart, liver, and lungs, as well as many
cancers. In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco as the world’s single greatest preventable
cause of death
