World No Tobacco Day 2019
Every year, on May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners mark “World No Tobacco Day” (WNTD), highlighting the health and additional risks associated with tobacco use.
People can contribute on an individual level to making a sustainable, tobacco-free world. Individuals can commit to avoiding tobacco use altogether. Those who do use tobacco can quit the habit or
seek help in doing so. Quitting will protect their health as well as others exposed to second-hand smoke, including children, other family members and friends. People who do not spend money on
tobacco products can use those resources for other things to promote a healthy lifestyle including the purchase of healthy food, healthcare and education. Communities can take action to increase
support for tobacco-free norms to help in the battle against tobacco use, the number one cause of preventable death in New York, the United States and around the world.
TOBACCO USE is an ADDICTION and smoking is still a problem. There may be an opioid overdose crisis in this country, but cigarettes still kill 15 times more people. In fact, cigarettes kill more people in the United States than alcohol, car crashes, AIDS, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. In New York State, tobacco use claims 28,200 lives each year. While the current smoking rate among adults in New York State is 14.2%, the smoking rates in the Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie region are 23.4% for Delaware County, 19.7% for Otsego County and 18.1% for Schoharie County.
Advancing Tobacco Free Communities – Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties (ATFC-DOS) works on initiatives to change the community environment to support New York State’s tobacco-free norm. ATFC-DOS educates the community and decision makers, mobilizes community members around the problems that tobacco addiction causes in local communities, and helps decision makers understand the types of choices that they have to address these problems. There are 25 Advancing Tobacco Free Communities organizations covering every county of New York State. The NYS Department of Health’s Bureau of Tobacco Control provides grant funds to the Research Foundation of SUNY at SUNY Cobleskill to implement the Advancing Tobacco Free Communities program in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties.
- Preventing and reducing tobacco use are the most important public health actions we can take to improve the health of New Yorkers.
- Reducing tobacco use among disadvantaged groups is the primary unmet need of tobacco control.
- New and emerging nicotine products could reverse the substantial gains made and strain our capacity to achieve success.
World No Tobacco Day
The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2019 is on “Tobacco and Lung Health.” The campaign aims to increase awareness about the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease and the fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people. The campaign also serves as a call to action, advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption and engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors in the fight for tobacco control.
Goals of the World No Tobacco Day 2019 campaign
The most effective measure to improve lung health is to reduce tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure. But knowledge among large sections of the general public, and particularly among smokers, on the implications for the health of people’s lungs from tobacco smoking and second-hand smoke exposure is low in some countries. Despite strong evidence of the harms of tobacco on lung health, the potential of tobacco control for improving lung health remains underestimated.
Parents and other members of the community should also take measures to promote their own health, and that of their children, by protecting them from the harms caused by tobacco.
