The World Health Organisation and its global partners hold World No Tobacco Day annually in a bid to raise awareness and understanding of the deleterious effects tobacco use has on health. This year’s focus is the relationship between tobacco and lung health. Other focal points over the past few years have been:
2018 – Tobacco and heart disease
2017 – Tobacco as a threat to development
2016 – Get ready for plain packaging
2015 – Stop illicit trade of tobacco products
2014 – Raise taxes on tobacco
and stretching all the way back to its first ever celebration in 1988 with Tobacco or Health: Choose Health.
The WHO created #WNTD in 1987, after passing Resolution WHA40.38 initially calling for 7 April 1988 to be a worldwide no-smoking day. In 1988, Resolution WHA42.9 was passed which called for the celebration every year on 31 May.
Smoking is scientifically proven to be the biggest preventable cause of various health problems and severe illness; most commonly cancer. As according to research by Cancer Research UK:
When a cigarette burns, over 5000 chemicals are released.
Roll-up tobacco cigarettes contain the same cancer-causing chemicals as manufactured cigarettes, so aren’t any safer.
There is clear evidence that second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer and other health problems like heart disease.
Smoking causes at least 15 different types of cancer.
Chemicals in cigarette smoke enter our blood stream and can then affect the entire body, this is why smoking causes so many different types of cancer.
Smoking causes other cancers including mouth, pharynx, nose and sinuses, larynx, oesophagus, liver, pancreas, stomach, kidney, bowel, ovary, bladder, cervix and some forms of leukemia.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death, and smoking causes around 7 in 10 lung cancer cases in the UK.
To discover more about World No Tobacco Day, click here
Learn about alternatives, such as e-cigarettes
Or, for help to quit smoking, go to: nhs.uk/smokefree
