World No Tobacco Day
Next Tuesday is World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organisation’s annual initiative to draw attention to the fact that smoking is the second major cause of death in the world, claiming 5.4 million lives every year.
Begun in 1988, the event aims to encourage 24 hours of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption, in the hope of inspiring people to take their last puff. Each year the WHO selects a theme for the day, which then becomes the focus of the organisation’s tobacco-related campaigning for the coming 12 months.
This year the theme highlights the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty that calls for a set of universal standards stating the dangers of tobacco, regulating its advertising and limiting its use in all forms around the world. (Last week, New York became the latest US city to ban smoking in outdoor public spaces, including parks (above), beaches and pools.) The treaty has become one of the most rapidly and widely embraced in United Nations history since it came into effect, in 2005, with 173 nations becoming party to it.
In Dublin, St James’s Hospital will mark the event by promoting its Commit to Quit campaign, with carbon-monoxide checks and an ageing booth where smokers can get an idea of what they will look like at 72 if they continue to smoke.
