“No tobacco” – still work to do

Abstract

In 1988, the World Health Organisation (WHO) passed a resolution to raise awareness of the risks of using tobacco. It identified a specific day to do this, the 31 May (each year) and named it ‘World No Tobacco Day’. Each year, there has been a campaign to focus on particular risks, the practices of the tobacco industry and what can be done to protect people from tobacco use. On this day, it can be useful to remind ourselves about the dangers of tobacco, both for users and non-users and how we can support the fight to reduce and in time eliminate tobacco use. Although the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was agreed and published in 2005 (World Health Organisation 2005), with over 8 million people dying from preventable tobacco-related diseases each year (World Health Organisation 2022), the dangers of tobacco use remain and are familiar to health promoters and educators. Tobacco use can adversely affect the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastro-intestinal, neuro-sensory, skeletal, gynaecological and urological body systems. Tobacco use leads to poorer outcomes in maternity care for mother and infant. The latest data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2019 (Global Burden of Disease Viewpoint Collaborators 2020) identifies that globally, tobacco accounts (across all age ranges) for 21.4% of male deaths and 8.3% of female deaths. The report identifies that the annual rate of change (ARC) in exposure to this risk between 2010 and 2019 was reducing which was good news. However, with high but preventable mortality rates from tobacco use, it is clear that there is still much to be done. As with most health problems, disparity exists in tobacco use worldwide. Globally, there is higher mortality in lowand middle-income countries. Some regions of the world have higher use than others for example, Withers, Nguyen, and McCool (2020, p 287) identify that ‘the Asia Pacific region is home to 30% of the world’s smokers”. Nationally disparities exist too, and in the UK tobacco use reflects health inequalities in relation to economic status with the most disadvantaged communities more commonly using tobacco. The impact of tobacco use on the health of individuals and communities is understood. The impact on the economy is also considerable, as the costs of treating preventable disease and the days of productivity lost caused by tobacco use are around $1.4 trillion per year, which is about 1.8% of the world’s GDP (World Health Organisation 2022). This year, WHO is also focusing on another impact of tobacco use – its impact on the environment. WHO states that annual greenhouse gas contributions by the tobacco industry and the land used for tobacco growth each year – which could be utilised for food crops or prevent deforestation – contribute to large-scale damage to the climate (World Health Organisation 2022a) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PROMOTION AND EDUCATION 2022, VOL. 60, NO. 3, 191–192 https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2022.2068257