WHO Stamps Out Tobacco Use Help Protect Citizens and Their Futures
As is known to all, tobacco use is harmful to the health. However, there are many people in the world are addicted to tobacco products, especially males. The long periods of tobacco use will cause various health problems, including pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, prostatitis, infertility, lung cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, liver cancer, etc.
On 30, May 2017, WHO published a release with the name “World No Tobacco Day 2017: Beating tobacco for health, prosperity, the environment and national development,” which demonstrating the threat tobacco poses to development across the globe and encouraging governments to introduce measures to control tobacco use.
According to the statistics, tobacco use accounts for over 7 million deaths worldwide every year and the cost to governments and households for lost productivity and healthcare is more than US$ 1.4 trillion.
Tobacco products have severe impact on the environment. The tobacco waste contains over 7000 toxic chemicals that can do harm to the environment. And these toxins can also put human at high risk of getting cancer. Tobacco waste is the largest type of litter by count globally. It’s reported that up to 10 billion of the 15 billion cigarettes sold daily are disposed in the environment. And cigarette butts account for 30–40% of all items collected in coastal and urban clean-ups.
Except for affecting human health and the environment, tobacco use also has something to do with poverty and education. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households, spending on tobacco products often represents more than 10% of total household expenditure, which means they usually spend less money on food, education and healthcare. It’s reported that 10%–14% of children from tobacco-growing families miss class because of working in tobacco fields.
According to statistics, tobacco contributes to 16% of all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) deaths. Actions should be taken urgently to save people’s lives, reduce levels of poverty and decrease damage to the environment. Actions that WHO is urging governments to take include banning the advertising and sponsorship of tobacco, banning sales to minors, requiring health warnings on tobacco packaging, raising tobacco taxes, and creating a national coordinating mechanism for tobacco control.
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