31 MAY 2012: WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY
The World Health Organization (WHO) selects “tobacco industry interference” as the theme of the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Thursday, 31 May 2012. The campaign will focus on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry’s brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) because of the serious danger they pose to public health.
WHO urges national leaders to fight against industry attacks
On World No Tobacco Day (31 May), WHO is calling on national leaders to be extra vigilant against the increasingly aggressive attacks by the industry which undermine policies that protect people from the harms of tobacco. Tobacco kills almost 6 million people every year and is one of the leading preventable causes of illness and death around the world.
Tobacco industry trying to undermine treaty
“In recent years, multinational tobacco companies have been shamelessly fuelling a series of legal actions against governments that have been at the forefront of the war against tobacco. The industry is now stepping out of the shadows and into court rooms,” says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “We must now stand together with these governments that have had the courage to do the right thing to protect their citizens.”
Tobacco kills millions
Tobacco kills up to half its users. By 2030, WHO estimates that tobacco will kill more than 8 million people every year, with four out of five of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries. Tobacco is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardio-vascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases. NCDs account for 63% of all deaths worldwide.
Secondhand smoke kills children
In nonsmokers, exposure to secondhand smoke is estimated to kill another 600 000 people annually. Almost half of all children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke and more than 40% of children have at least one smoking parent. In 2004, children accounted for nearly one third of deaths attributable to secondhand smoke.
Read more: http://www.who.int/en/
Every hour 10 people die from tobacco-related diseases in Brazil. In the year that number reaches 200,000 dead due to the cigarette, but in the world rises to 4 million victims, or one every 8 seconds.
To combat smoking and to disseminate information about the harms caused by cigarettes, the World Health Organization (WHO) instituted since 1987, the May 31 as World No Tobacco Day. Yes, my dear. It’s today.
It’s the cigarette that needs you and not vice versa. See the gallery. Put it out of your life at once.
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