World No Tobacco Day

Editor’s note:

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated every year on May 31 to remind the worldwide people the danger of smoking with the ultimate aim to let tobacco retreat from our daily life.

Harms

• The statistics on the official website of WHO shows that the tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year: more than 5 million users and ex users and more than 600 000 nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke.
• After high blood pressure, tobacco use is the biggest contributor to the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases— such as heart attack, stroke, cancer and emphysema — which accounts for 63% of deaths.
• No consumer product kills as many people and as needlessly as does tobacco. It killed 100 million people in the 20th century. Unless we act, it could kill up to 1 billion people in the 21st. All of these deaths will have been entirely preventable. 

  (Sources from WHO)

Activities

Since May 1 China had banned smoking in all indoor public and work places as required by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. 

A "No Smoking" sign is displayed in a restaurant in central Beijing May 1, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]