World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31. The member states of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987. It draws global attention to the tobacco epidemic and to the preventable death and disease it causes. It aims to reduce the 3.5 million yearly deaths from tobacco related health problems.

History

• In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for April 7, 1988 to be "a world no-smoking day."
• In 1988, Resolution WHA42.10 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.

The health effects of tobacco smoking refer to direct tobacco smoking as well as the inhalation of environmental or secondhand tobacco smoke. The WHO in the 2002 World Health Report estimates that in developed countries, 26% of male deaths and 9% of female deaths can be attributed to smoking. Similarly, the United States'

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide".

Primary risks

The main health risks in tobacco pertain to diseases of the cardiovascular system, in particular smoking being a major risk factor for amyocardial infarction (heart attack), diseases of the respiratory tract such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer and cancers of the larynx and mouth. Prior to World War I, lung cancer was considered to be a rare disease, which most physicians would never see during their career. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking came a virtual epidemic of lung cancer.

Incidence of impotence is approximately 85 percent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers, and it is a key cause of erectile dysfunction (ED). Smoking causes impotence because it promotes arterial narrowing. Tobacco related illnesses kill 440,000 USA citizens per year, about 1,205 per day, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. A person's increased risk of contracting disease is directly proportional to the length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount smoked. However, if someone stops smoking, then these chances gradually decrease as the damage to their body is repaired.

Diseases linked to smoking tobacco cigarettes include:

• Most forms of cancer, particularly lung cancer, cancer of the kidney, cancer of the larynx and head and neck, bladder, esophagus, pancreas, and stomach. There is some evidence suggesting an increased risk of myeloid leukemia, squamous cell sinonasal cancer, liver cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer after an extended latency, childhood cancers and cancers of the gall bladder, adrenal gland and small intestine.
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Stroke
• Respiratory ailments such as the common cold and bronchitis
• Peripheral vascular diseases
• Birth defect of pregnant smokers' offspring
• Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)
• Impotence
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis in particular
• More likely to develop cataracts that may cause blindness
• Reduced memory and cognitive abilities in adolescent smokers (Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Jan 1;57(1):56-66)