World No Tobacco Day – 31st May 2022
About World No Tobacco Day
The World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day1
is held on 31st May each year. It is an annual awareness day to inform the public on the danger of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
This year, the theme for World No Tobacco Day is ‘Tobacco: Threat to our Environment’. It
explores the harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment and encourages
people to ‘quit tobacco for your health and the health of our planet’.
You can find out more about the theme and download resources from the WHO website
here.
Key local statistics
Smoking is still our country’s number one killer. Every year around 78,000 people in the UK
die from smoking, with many more living with debilitating smoking-related illnesses. But you
can make a difference. Find out how here .
The links below take you to the Local Tobacco Profiles which include local
breakdowns of the APS data. ONS have cautioned that 2020 data is not comparable with
previous years due to a change in methodology so you may opt to use the 2019 figures
which are part of a consistent time series.
• Find your local smoking prevalence including the number of smokers in your local
authority here
• Find the difference in prevalence between socioeconomic groups in your local
authority here.
• Smoking related mortality in your local authority can be found here
https://bit.ly/3f6yfRD divide the ‘count’ column by three to get your annual figure.
• Find your local figure on the number of smoking attributable hospital admissions
each year here.
• £17 billion on potential wealth is lost from the national economy in England each year
as a result of lost productivity due to smoking. Reducing smoking will help support
economic recovery from COVID-19, reducing impacts like smoking related sick days
and economic inactivity. Find the cost of lost productivity due to smoking in your local
area in the ASH Ready Reckoner here: https://ash.org.uk/ash-ready-reckoner/
• Smoking has a profound impact on inequality. Find more local stats here.
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-da
17 REASONS TO QUIT
Tobacco affects your looks almost immediately
1. Everything stinks! From your skin, to your whole house, your clothes, and your fingers and breath.
2. Tobacco causes teeth to yellow and creates excess dental plaque.
3. Tobacco makes your skin wrinkly, making you look older faster. Smoking prematurely ages the skin by wearing away proteins that give the skin elasticity, depleting it of vitamin A and restricting blood flow.
4. Tobacco smoking increases the risk of developing psoriasis, a noncontagious inflammatory skin condition that leaves itchy, oozing red patches all over the body.
It threatens the health your non-smoking friends and family – not just you.
5. Tobacco use is responsible for 25% of all cancer deaths globally.
6. Smokers are more likely to experience infertility. Quitting smoking reduces difficulty getting pregnant, having premature births, babies with low birth weights and miscarriage.
7. Smoking can cause erectile dysfunction. Smoking restricts blood flow to the penis creating an inability to achieve an erection. Erectile dysfunction is more common in smokers and very likely to persist or become permanent unless the man stops smoking early in life.
8. Non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke are at risk of developing lung cancer.
10. School-aged children exposed to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke are also at risk for asthma through inflammation of the airways to the lungs.
11. Quitting smoking decreases the risk of many diseases related to second-hand smoke in children, such as respiratory diseases (e.g., asthma) and ear infections.
It’s expensive – you could be spending your money on more important things
12. One study found that smokers burn through an average of $1.4 million in personal costs, includes spending on cigarettes, medical costs and lower wages brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
13. Tobacco use burdens the global economy with an estimated US$ 1.4 trillion in healthcare costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco and lost human capital from tobacco-attributable sickness and death.
14. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco.
Tobacco use has negative social consequences
15. You want to be a good example for your kids, friends, and loved ones.
16. Tobacco use can affect social interactions and relationships negatively.
17. Quitting means there are no restrictions on where you can go – you can mingle socially, without feeling isolated or having to go outside to smoke.
