Whether in a movie theatre or at any public place, the common line we see everywhere is “Don’t smoke”. It was the first instance for any person to feel subconscious that this is not right.
Over the past 10-15 years, the consumption of tobacco has increased. In the beginning, you could only get tobacco in one form, but with urbanization, people get tobacco in different forms.
To motivate more people, the World Health Assembly in 1987 passed a resolution WHA40.38 stating the day 7 April 1988 as “World no-smoking day”.
Later in the year 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 came and changed the date to 31 May.
Tobacco Facts
A report indicates that not only people who smoke tobacco die but also non-smokers who are exposed. This is called death by second-hand smoke.
In the world, approximately 8 million people are dying each year because of tobacco. Nearly 7 million died due to direct smoking, and 1 or 2 million are due to passive smoking.
In low and middle-income countries, the consumers’ number is high.
According to the statistics, 36.7% men of the world’s men and 7.8% of all women are smokers.
Nicotine & Tobacco Products
If a person is completely addicted to cigarettes, it is not that easy for him to quit all of a sudden. So there must be some measures taken.
Production of E-cigarettes
Electronic nicotine delivery systems are also called E-cigarettes. These are a kind of device that helps in heating a liquid to create an aerosol that is consumed by the user. E-cigarettes also, some may contain nicotine and some may not contain nicotine. These E-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco but still, they are dangerous and not safe.
To children, they are riskier and highly addictive.
Measures to be taken to QUIT
⦁ Need to increase the smoke-free zones to reduce second-hand smoke.
⦁ Showcasing hard-hitting messages and health warnings everywhere.
⦁ Pictorial representation of after-effects of smoking.
⦁ Running campaigns and improving rehabilitation centers.
⦁ An increase in tobacco prices can also help.
⦁ On television, radio, and all kind of electronic media, starting regular ads on tobacco effects.
WHO MPower plan
In the year 2007, ‘WHO‘ started a plan with the name “MPOWER“.
The measures are
⦁ Monitor usage of tobacco and necessary prevention policies
⦁ Protect addicted people from tobacco use
⦁ Offer help to people who are about to quit tobacco
⦁ Warn about the effects
⦁ Enforce bans
⦁ Raise the taxes on tobacco
Conclusion
————————Tobacco Kills ———————–
(1) Global Burden of Disease [database].Washington, DC: Institute of Health Metrics; 2019. IHME,accessed 17 July 2021
(2) iQOS: evidence of pyrolysis and release of a toxicant from plastic
(3) Huang J, Kornfield R, Szczypka G, Emery S. A cross-sectional examination of marketing of electronic cigarettes on Twitter. Tobacco Control. 2014; 23 (suppl 3): iii26-iii30
(4) Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Electronic Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS/ENNDS) [Online]. Decision by WHO, Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Seventh session, FCTC/COP/7(9), 2016.
(5) Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Electronic Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS/ENNDS) [Online]. Decision by WHO, Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Seventh session, FCTC/COP/6(9), 2014.
EDITED BY – Banibrata Chakraborty
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