This year, more than 5 million people will die from a tobacco-related heart attack, stroke, cancer, lung ailment or other disease as per the latest findings. This goes on to make tobacco use the leading preventable cause of death. Additionally, more than 600,000 people?more than a quarter of them children?will die from exposure to second-hand smoke which they are unknowingly induced to due to passive smoking.

Sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31 May. This year, World No Tobacco Day highlights certain factors that were agreed by the WHO Framework Convention over the years.

The international community has very few opportunities to protect the world’s population from a cause of massive ill health and premature death according to Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, stated.  What one does need to practice is tobacco control which is unquestionably the greatest of these opportunities. That gives the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control a great opportunity of this kind.

WHO FCTC advocates all countries go on to approve the treaty and fully implement its provisions and adopt its guidelines. This in turn will bring about greater effective tobacco control measures.

The annual death toll from the global epidemic of tobacco use could rise to 8 million by 2030. It has already gone on to kill 100 million people during the 20th century; tobacco use could kill up to 1 billion during the 21st century if immediate measures are not taken.