World Health No Tobacco Day May 31st 2013

World Health No Tobacco Day May 31^st 2013

Every year, on the 31^st of May, WHO and partners mark World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. The theme of this year’s campaign is "Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship".

Tobacco is the only legally available consumer product, which kills people when it is used as it is meant to be. Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die as a result of their habit and despite it being illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone below the age of 16 about 450 children start smoking every day. About half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit with smoking causing about thirty per cent of all cancer deaths, 17% of all heart disease deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema. So what is actually in a cigarette? Firstly nicotine which is highly addictive. It stimulates the central nervous system, increasing the heartbeat rate and blood pressure. Then there’s tar brown and treacly in appearance deposited in the lungs and respiratory system and gradually absorbed. And Carbon Monoxide binds to haemoglobin in the bloodstream more easily than oxygen does making the blood carry less oxygen round the body. A pretty grim picture. So after years of abuse is it worth giving up? It certainly is. Your risk of developing lung cancer will be reduced as will your risk of heart disease (in ten years to no more than a non smoker). The accelerated decline of lung function will be reduced and your reproductive health as well as your general health and ability to recover from surgery will improve.

Figures have shown that banning smoking in pubs and in many public places has had an effect as has the ever-increasing rise in the price of cigarettes.   The latest initiative is to stop having cigarettes on open display and instead have them locked away and brought out only when requested and that will no doubt also help.

As a reformed smoker I know how difficult it is to give up.  But boy am I glad I did.   The sad little groups of smokers outside offices and other buildings and the fact that outside spaces at pubs have almost been completely colonized by smokers and their discarded fag butts are argument enough.   It is getting tougher and tougher to smoke anywhere and if anyone does light up in a place where they are not supposed to they are all but lynched!

There is nothing good about smoking – at all!  It is a sure fire way to wreck your health and keep your wallet empty.  On this month’s World No Tobacco Day why not have another go at giving up the weed?  There are many more aids that really do help and in a lot of ways that really do succeed in helping smokers quit and regain control of their health and their money.  

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Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio