World No Tobacco Day was observed on May 31, 2021 under the theme “Commit to Quit”. It is observed since 1987 after member states of World Health Organisation created “World No Tobacco Day” to bring global attention towards tobacco epidemic and associated preventable death.
Why this day is significant?
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As per lancet study, in some three decades, about 200 million deaths were caused by smoking tobacco use while the annual economic costs because of smoking tobacco use is more than US $1 trillion.
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Further, one in six non-communicable disease-related deaths is due to smoking tobacco.
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Lancet has identified Tobacco control as a crucial and necessary” part to reach WHO’s global goals of 25 percent reduction in ”premature mortality” from non-communicable diseases by 2025 to comply with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Thus, this day becomes important to raise awareness among people of harmful effects of smoking Tobacco.
Top Smoking countries
10 countries with largest number of tobacco smokers as of 2019 are- China, India, Indonesia, USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam, and Philippines.
What are the concerns?
According to World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 70 percent of 1.3 billion tobacco users across the world lack access to tools required for quitting Tobacco. This access gap has further exacerbated in 2020 because health workforce are being mobilized to handle covid-19 pandemic’.