World No Tobacco Day 2021: Here's Why Quitters Are Winners

World No Tobacco Day 2021: Here's why one must quit tobacco to be a winner

Today is World No Tobacco Day. The 2021 theme and campaign of World No Tobacco Day is: Commit to Quit. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ''Over 70 per cent of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide lack access to the tools they need to quit successfully. This gap in access to cessation services is only further exacerbated in the last year as the health workforce has been mobilized to handle the coronavirus pandemic''. The WHO on Monday, appreciated and thanked Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan for his efforts to "ban E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products". 

Pleased to award @drharshvardhan, ???????? Health Minister, with the special recognition for tobacco control. His leadership was instrumental in the 2019 national legislation to ban E-cigarettes & heated tobacco products. Thank you, Minister! https://t.co/VsDIL5ATFS#WorldNoTobaccoDaypic.twitter.com/IthC31PJau

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 31, 2021

The first international public health treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), came into force and became an international binding law in 2005. A study published in Lancet says, "Ending the global tobacco epidemic is a defining challenge in global health. Timely and comprehensive estimates of the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden are needed to guide tobacco control efforts nationally and globally."  

Monday is World #NoTobacco Day ????.

The #COVID19 pandemic has led to millions of tobacco users saying they want to protect their health and quit tobacco.

Join them! https://t.co/KPMYDjdYFGpic.twitter.com/grA08KJYKu

— United Nations (@UN) May 31, 2021

World No Tobacco Day 2021: Here are facts that show why quitter are winners. #CommitToQuit is the campaign for this year.  

• "Over the past three decades, more than 200 million deaths have been caused by smoking tobacco use, and annual economic costs due to smoking tobacco use exceed US$1 trillion."
• "One in six non-communicable disease-related deaths" are attributable to smoking tobacco. 
• "Tobacco control has been identified as a crucial and necessary" part of reaching global goals of 25 per cent reduction in ''premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2025 outlined in the WHO global non-communicable disease monitoring framework and a third reduction by 2030 included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)". 
• "The 10 countries with the largest number of tobacco smokers in 2019, together comprising nearly two-thirds of the global tobacco smoking population, were China, India, Indonesia, the USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam, and the Philippines".

Sources: Lancet study