Tobacco kills over 8 million people every year and destroys the environment, harming human health, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste of tobacco (). The harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment is vast and adds unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystems ().

History of Tobacco

Tobacco was introduced to India by Portuguese traders in the 1600s. The rich in the West gradually became aware of the dangers of tobacco use but stopped using it in developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil. India is currently the largest producer of tobacco in the world and China is the largest tobacco consumer in the world.

The tobacco industry is making unimaginable profits and despite numerous government and private ant tobacco campaigns it is difficult to ban the industry. About 350 million cakes of tobacco are destroyed for domestic consumption in India, 86% in smoked form and 14% in smokeless form.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO):

• 
  12% of the world’s smokers are in India
• More than 10 million people die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
• 60% of adult males in India use tobacco in some form and 13% to 15% of adult females.

The situation in India is aggravated due to the spread of tobacco chewing habit which has spread widely from urbanized areas to remote villages.

Chewing tobacco is the most common form of chewing on a daily basis by over 206 million people in India. This is the reason for the high incidence of head and neck cancers in India. The risk of cancer from smoking is 7.3 and chewing tobacco is 11.4%. It is estimated that 33% of cancer cases are related to tobacco smoke exposure or chewing tobacco and experts conclude that tobacco is the leading cause of cancer worldwide.

Goals of the Day

The World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease that the use of tobacco causes. In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a “World No-Smoking Day.” In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31st May ().

World No Tobacco Day aims to draw attention to the interference of tobacco companies in business practices and policy decisions that undermine effective tobacco control to capture consumers from generation to generation ().

Theme of this Year’s World No Tobacco Day

The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2022 is “Protect the Environment,” highlighting that tobacco pollutes the entire planet and affects the health of all people throughout its lifetime ().
Growing, producing, and using tobacco poisons our water, soil, beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, and cigarette butts, including microplastic and e-cigarette waste (4). Each year, the theme refers to a specific issue related to tobacco and its industry. This year, the theme focuses on the impact of tobacco on the environment and aims to expose tobacco companies’ attempts to “greenwash” their reputation by marketing themselves as environment-friendly ().

Discarded cigarette butts represent the world’s first source of plastic pollution, while the use of pesticides to grow tobacco plants and deforestation (3.5 million hectares of land destroyed each year) and the use of large quantities of water to grow tobacco, reducing ecosystems and climate regression are damaging. Tobacco companies also supply 84 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent to greenhouse gases ().

Just as tobacco companies are more active in marketing their products in low- and middle-income countries, they focus on these regions, which carry up to 90% of the environmental burden of tobacco production ().

The campaign calls on governments and policymakers to accelerate legislation, including the implementation and strengthening of existing programs, such as the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control ().

World No Tobacco Day: Protect Our Youth

Using any kind of tobacco product is unsafe, especially for kids, teens, and young adults. But worldwide, at least 14 million young people aged 13 to 15 currently use tobacco products, according to CDC’s 2006-2017 Global Youth Tobacco Survey. Tobacco companies, meanwhile, spend billions of dollars every year on marketing tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, and others ().

This World No Tobacco Day, learn what individuals and communities can do to help keep young people tobacco-free, or help them quit for good ().

In 2019, about 40% of U.S. middle and high schoolers reported ever using any kind of tobacco product — including e-cigarettes — and 23% said they had used a tobacco product in the past 30 days.

Call to Action

The following points are the actions that we can take to celebrate the World No Tobacco Day.

• Give tobacco users an extra reason to quit. Quitting tobacco can benefit your health and the environment.
• Supports policy action to ban disposable plastics, including cigarette butts, smokeless tobacco bags and electronic waste
• Talk to children about the dangers of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes
• Talk to your children about the false glamorization of tobacco products in the media
• Refuse to give tobacco products to children, teenagers, or young people
• Support governments in raising additional taxes/taxes on industry to protect the environment
• Raise awareness of tobacco and its ill effects in social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and create banners for the day
• May use various slogans, and hashtags in the campaign against smoking like #QYWay, “Break Free,” “Time to Quit,” #TodayIsTheDay, #NoSmokingDay, and parallels.

Tobacco-Related Disparities

Although cigarette smoking has declined significantly since 1964, there are inequalities in tobacco use among groups defined by race, ethnicity, educational status and socioeconomic status and regions of the United States.

Studies show that most adults who regularly use tobacco products in the United States start before the age of 18. It is unsafe for young people to use any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. Tobacco products — cigarettes, non-smoking tobacco — and most e-cigarettes — contain nicotine, which is a drug ().

Exposure to nicotine can be detrimental to brain development, continuing through adolescence and 25 years. Nicotine exposure during these critical years can be detrimental to areas of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control ().

In the United States, men (14 in 100) were more likely to smoke cigarettes than women (11 in 100). Current cigarette smoking is most prevalent among 25- to 44-year-olds and 45- to 64-year-olds and lower among 18- to 24-year-olds. And it is more common among divorced/separated or widowed and less likely to be married or living with a partner ().

Passive Smoking — A Danger at Home

There are two types of smoking: (a) active smoking and (b) passive smoking. Active smoking is by smoking cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. Passive smoking is by inhaling smoke that has been breathed out by an active smoker.

More than 38% of children between the ages of two months and five years are exposed to passive smoking at home. Passive smoking increases the risk of heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer in wives of smokers.

In the United States, more than 500 million people under the age of 15 in 21 countries are addicted to tobacco (). Passive smoking can cause the same amount of disaster as the active smoking of tobacco and its products.

• One in four Americans, or about 58 million people, is exposed to passive smoking.
• Children (ages 3-11) have a higher exposure to passive smoking compared to other ages.
• African American children are more likely to smoke than children of other ethnic/ethnic groups.
• Quitting smoking and following non-smoking policies can help protect the health of non-smokers.

Tobacco smoking and chewing affect lung function, making it harder for the body to fight off respiratory diseases caused by coronavirus and its variants. In addition, tobacco lowers the immune system and increases the risk of developing COVID-19.

Although it is difficult to quit smoking, even if the drug has been around for many years, it is never too late to take care of your health and that of others (passive smoking carries the same health risks). On this World No Smoking Day, take the opportunity to get all the support you need to quit smoking and persuade the others to do so.


References

1. World No Tobacco Day- (https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day)
2. World No Tobacco Day – 31 May 2022 – (https://www.paho.org/en/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day-2022)
3. World No Tobacco Day 2022 – (https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/2022)
4. World No Tobacco Day – (https://www.uicc.org/what-we-do/thematic-areas-work/tobacco-control/world-no-tobacco-day)
5. World No Tobacco Day: Protect Our Youth – (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/features/world-no-tobacco-day/index.html)
6. Tobacco-Related Disparities – (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/index.htm)
7. Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults in the United States – (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm)

Source: Medindia