World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed on 31 May

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