World No Tobacco Day 2019: Importance, theme and history

As we celebrate World No Tobacco Day today, here is all you need to know about this global awareness campaign. This WHO observance day aims to spread awareness about the negative impact of tobacco on our health, especially lungs.

Editorial Team | Published: May 31, 2019 11:17 am

Tobacco accounts for about 30 percent of all cancers in men and women in India. ©Shutterstock

Tobacco consumption is responsible for more than 7 million deaths every year, suggests an estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO data also reveals that almost 60,000 children die before turning 5 due to infections in the lower respiratory tract caused by second-hand smoke.

Global data from various sources suggest smoking causes 2 out of 3 lung deaths all over the world. It is also the main culprit behind other fatal respiratory disorders like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and tuberculosis.

Oral and lung cancers are the other outcomes of tobacco consumption. Oral cancer is among the top cancers in India. According to a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), tobacco accounts for about 30 percent of all cancers in men and women in India. These numbers will only increase if we are unable to bring down tobacco use, not only in India, but globally.

Campaign against tobacco

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated on 31^st May to address tobacco related issues. This is an annual WHO observance day targeted towards spreading awareness about the harmful effects of this stimulant. The global campaign also aims at bringing down the disease and death burden of tobacco, globally.

The agenda of World No Tobacco Day 2019 is reflected through its theme ‘Tobacco and lung health’. This theme will intend to educate the global population on tobacco’s detrimental impact on lungs and role of this respiratory organ in our health and well-being.

Previous themes of World No Tobacco Day

Every year, the WHO selects a theme for the World No Tobacco Day to send a strong message against tobacco use. The theme of a year refers to the WHO’s main tobacco related agenda for that particular year. Here are the previous themes of the World No Tobacco Day.

2018: Tobacco Breaks Hearts: Choose health, not tobacco

2017: Tobacco – a threat to development

2016: Get ready for plain packaging

2015: Stop illicit trade of tobacco products

2014: Raise taxes on tobacco

2013: Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship

2012: Tobacco industry interference

2011: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

2010: Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women

2009: Tobacco Health Warnings

2008: Tobacco-free youth

2007: Tobacco and lung health

2006: Tobacco – a threat to development

2005: The role of health professionals on tobacco control

2004: Tobacco and poverty

2003: Tobacco-Free Film and Fashion

2002: Tobacco Free Sports–Play it Clean!

2001: Second-hand smoke kills. Let’s clear the air

2000: Tobacco kills, don’t be duped

1999: Leave the pack behind

1998: Growing up without tobacco

1997: United for a tobacco free world

1996: Sport and art without tobacco: play it tobacco free

1995: Tobacco costs more than you think

1994: Media and tobacco: get the message across

1993: Health services: our windows to a tobacco free world

1992: Tobacco free workplaces: safer and healthier

1991: Public places and transport: better be tobacco free

1990: Childhood and youth without tobacco: growing up without tobacco

1989: Women and tobacco: the female smoker: at added risk

1988: Tobacco or Health: choose health

History

In the year 1987, the WHO passed a resolution calling 7th April 1988, ‘a world no-smoking day’ with an aim to urge people all around the world to not use tobacco products for 24 hours. This action was intended to help those who are trying to quit.

In 1988, WHO passed another resolution calling 31^st May as the ‘World No Tobacco Day’. Since that day, it is being celebrated globally. Ten years later, this world body established the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) to focus attention and international resources on the world-wide health issue of tobacco use.

Later, in the year 2008, the WHO ordered a global ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship on World No Tobacco Day. This was done to target advertising efforts aimed at young people as various studies had shown that exposure to tobacco advertising was attracting youth towards smoking more.

Controlling tobacco use in India

India is the second largest consumer of tobacco and has the largest number of smokeless tobacco users in the world, says a 2018 study published in the SAGE Journals.

Though various tobacco control measures have been taken by the Indian government, a lot more needs to be done. Infrastructural and geographical challenges have been the major barriers in the implementation of these policies in India. On this World No Tobacco Day, we give you a snapshot of what has been done to bring down tobacco use in India:

1975: India passed anti-tobacco legislation for the first time at the national level. It was known as Cigarettes Act. The Act made it mandatory for cigarette packs and advertisements to display the statutory warning ‘Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health’. However, this law was not applicable limited to non-cigarette tobacco products.

1981: The Prevention and Control of Pollution Act came into being. According to this law, smoking was considered as an air pollutant.

1988: The Motor Vehicles Act declared smoking in public vehicle illegal.

1990: The Government of India used The provision of the Prevention of the Food Adulteration Act 1955 to state that chewing tobacco is injurious.

1992: The Central Government banned the sale of tobacco-containing tooth paste and tooth powder under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940.

2000: The Cable Television Networks Amendment Act of 2000 banned tobacco and liquor advertisements throughout the country.

2003: The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) came in place of the Cigarettes Act of 1975. It included cigars, beedis, cheroots, pipe tobacco, hookah, chewing tobacco, pan masala, and gutka in its ambit. It prohibited direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products, smoking in public places, sale of tobacco to minors, and smoking within a radius of 100 yards of educational institutions. This law made the display of pictorial warning on all tobacco products compulsory. Between 2001-2003, the state governments also banned gutka and pan masala.

2005: India adapted the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Being a party to this convention, the Government of India has taken many bold strategies to control tobacco use in the country.

2008: The government initiated the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) to fulfill the commitments under the WHO-FCTC. This programme included 42 districts of 21 states/union territories of India and planned a wide range of activities like educating school children about tobacco, survey and surveillance, capacity building, etc.

Published: May 31, 2019 11:17 am

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