World Tobacco Day is celebrated every 31st of May to serve as a way of informing the public on the dangers of using tobacco. This date was agreed upon by the WHO member countries in 1987.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. It kills more than 8 million people each 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.
DID YOU KNOW THAT:
Over 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
In 2020, 22.3% of the global population used tobacco, 36.7% of all men and 7.8% of the world’s women.
Tobacco is dangerous in all forms, and there is no such thing as a safe level of tobacco exposure. Cigarette smoking is the most widespread method of tobacco consumption in the world. Waterpipe tobacco, other smokeless tobacco products, and cigars are examples of other tobacco products. Tobacco usage causes poverty by shifting household expenditures away from fundamental requirements like food and shelter and toward tobacco. Tobacco usage has considerable economic costs, which include large health-care expenses for treating diseases induced by tobacco use, as well as lost human capital due to tobacco-related morbidity and mortality.
Second-hand tobacco smoke is the smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or from other smoked tobacco products (such as bidis and water-pipes) and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. More than 4000 chemicals have been identified in tobacco smoke and there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
The theme for this year is environmental protection. Tobacco farming depletes water resources, causes widespread deforestation, soil erosion, and pollutes air and water systems. Tobacco plants require a lot of fertilizer because they absorb more nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium than other major food and cash crops, which means they deplete soil fertility faster.
Tobacco is frequently grown without crop rotation (as a monocrop), leaving the tobacco plants and soil vulnerable to a variety of pests and diseases. These means that large quantities of chemicals (very harmful) are needed to control pest or disease outbreaks.
In 2007, WHO introduced a practical, cost-effective way to scale up implementation of the main demand reduction provisions of the WHO FCTC on the ground: MPOWER.
The 6 MPOWER measures are:
- Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
- Protect people from tobacco use
- Offer help to quit tobacco use
- Warn about the dangers of tobacco
- Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
- Raise taxes on tobacco.
What you can do
●Quit tobacco smoking and seek medical support or help
●Encourage anyone who’s into tobacco smoking to quit
●Policy creations that discourages or ban advertising of tobacco
●Help tobacco farmers switch to alternative crops
Public health care Space 