World No Tobacco Day
May 31, 2018
Every year, on 31 May, world Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, including the World Heart Federation (WHF), mark World No Tobacco Day to highlight the health and other risks associated with tobacco use and advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.
The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2018 is “Tobacco and heart disease.”
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills more people than any other cause of death worldwide.
Tobacco use is also the second leading cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), after high blood pressure. Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure contribute to approximately 12% of all heart disease deaths.
Facts
Tobacco kills up to half of its users.
Tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year. More than 6 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Around 80% of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
In some countries, children from poor households are employed in tobacco farming to provide family income. These children are especially vulnerable to “green tobacco sickness”, which is caused by the nicotine that is absorbed through the skin from the handling of wet tobacco leaves.
There are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer.
Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places.
Second-hand smoke causes more than 890 000 premature deaths per year.
In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.
In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.
Source: www.who.int / www.world-heart-federation.org
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