CNS: World No Tobacco Day

Showing posts with label World No Tobacco Day. Show all posts

Will governments make tobacco industry pay for all the harms it causes?

[watch the launch of Global Week of Action to Make Big Tobacco Pay] "How can we allow the tobacco industry to fill its coffers while we the people have to empty our pockets to fend for and suffer all the harms tobacco industry has caused? It is high time to shift the financial burden from people and communities to the tobacco industry for ALL the harms caused by its businesses," said Shobha Shukla while opening the launch of the historic Global Week of Action to Make Big Tobacco Pay.

Launch: #MakeBigTobaccoPay Global Week of Action + Media briefing

[Register now] Join us on 1st June 2026, Monday, in Launch of MAKE BIG TOBACCO PAY Global Week of Action as well as media briefing.

An important Declaration endorsed by over 1500 experts has called upon Indonesia to ratify the lifesaving global tobacco treaty and hold tobacco and nicotine industries liable. The declaration also calls for implementing several other proven measures to protect its children and people from deadly tobacco and nicotine products.

Will governments firewall public health from tobacco industry's lies and deceptive tactics?

A new WHO report launched in June 2025, warrants stronger measures to save lives from deadly tobacco and nicotine products and hold industry liable

Celebrating those who courageously stand with public health and human rights despite tobacco industry interference

photo courtesy: HealthTVonline.com

Before world leaders meet at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025 at the High-Level Meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it is important to underline that the major common risk factor of most NCDs is tobacco and nicotine use. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for deadliest infectious disease TB (and COVID-19). Unless we decimate (or eliminate) such risk factors, how will we deliver on the promises enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030?

Commitment to end tobacco must translate to bold actions on the ground, said Dr Tara Singh Bam. He exhorted the new government of Indonesia to sign and ratify the global tobacco treaty (formally called the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or WHO FCTC) in the interest of the health and wellbeing of its people.

[हिंदी] The same deceptive tricks and tactics are used by industries that profit from getting our children addicted to ultra-processed foods, high sugar products, tobacco and nicotine. Experts from the United Nations health agency – the World Health Organization (WHO) and Corporate Accountability, call for concerted efforts from the governments to put people before profit, and hold industries that do the reverse (prioritise profit over health) accountable.

Indonesia is enforcing stronger anti-tobacco measures despite industry interference

There is plenty of scientific evidence to show that tobacco kills one out of every two of its users (as per the WHO). Tobacco use devastates lives and fractures families killing over 8 million people every year – year after year. While governments are enforcing stronger evidence-based tobacco control measures, the tobacco industry is conniving to lure children and young people into addiction traps and reap bigger profits by selling its deadly products.

[हिन्दी] Young people are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in many countries, as the tobacco industry is specifically targeting youth, says the World Health Organization (WHO). "History is repeating, as the tobacco industry tries to sell the same nicotine to our children in different packaging. These industries are actively targeting schools, children and young people with new products that are essentially a candy-flavoured trap. How can they talk about 'harm reduction' when they are marketing these dangerous, highly addictive products to children?," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.

In the lead up to World No Tobacco Day later this month, it is high time we recognise and effectively address the deadly synergy between the two epidemics: tobacco use and tuberculosis (TB). Tobacco is the single-largest preventable cause of death worldwide and TB continues to be the deadliest of infectious diseases in high burden countries (even despite the COVID-19 pandemic).

Tobacco industry has used deception and lies to market its deadly tobacco products and lure children and young people to killer addiction over the decades. But it was only data, science and evidence that provided rock solid ground to health justice and corporate accountability advocates worldwide to expose the nefarious designs of tobacco industry, and advance historic progress in form of global tobacco treaty, as well as range of domestic laws and its enforcement.

This podcast features Dr Piyanuch Wuttisorn, Director General of National Statistical Office of Thailand (TNSO), which was conferred upon the coveted 2023 World Health Organization (WHO) Director General's WNTD Award.

Dr Piyanuch has also served earlier as Inspector-General, Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Thailand; Director, Social Data-based and Indicator Development Office, Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council; Senior Advisor in Plan and Policy for Director of the International Cooperation office, Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council; and Secretary-General, Office of the National Digital Economy and Society Commission of Thailand.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, aCast, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, and other podcast streaming platforms.

When farmers choose to grow food, not tobacco, sustainable development wins

"We need food, not tobacco," was the theme of the World No Tobacco Day 2023. The UN health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) rightly points out that tobacco contributes to increased food insecurity. Apart from being a deadly health hazard that is responsible for over 8 million deaths every year globally, tobacco production also adversely impacts economic stability, food security, gender equality, and our environment.

Tobacco industry-propelled epidemic of tobacco-caused diseases and untimely deaths continue to plague human development. Despite significant progress on tobacco control, endgame of tobacco - which is a human rights and social justice imperative - is not yet in sight. The recently released 7th edition of Tobacco Atlas shows that while global smoking prevalence in adults has declined from 22.7% in 2007 to 19.6% in 2019, we still have 1.3 billion tobacco users in the world. The progress on the endgame of tobacco is also threatened by the growing tobacco smoking rates among children aged 13 to 15 years in many countries, and by tobacco industry tactics targeting poorer countries with weak regulatory environments and pushing so-called 'novel' products in previously untapped markets.

Tobacco race: where quitters and non-runners are the real winners

Shobha Shukla - CNS

According to a recent study published in the The Lancet smoking killed 7.69 million people globally in 2019, while the number of smokers rose to 1.14 billion as the habit was picked up by young people around the globe. It was also the leading risk factor for death among males (over 20% of male deaths). Another worrisome finding is that 89% of new smokers are addicted by the age of 25, thanks to the continuous nefarious tactics of Big Tobacco, which is working round the clock to addict a new generation of customers.

Economic loss caused by tobacco to global economy is over US$ 1.4 trillion every year

M A N J A R I P E I R I S

[published in Asian Tribune]

Professor (Dr) Surya Kant, Head of the Respiratory Medicine Department, King George's Medical University delivering his keynote address at the ongoing Sustainable Development e-Talks (#SDGtalks) co-hosted by Indian Institute of Management Indore and CNS, said that scientific evidence from countries hard-hit by corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic shows that those with previously existing conditions like heart diseases, high blood pressure, cancers, kidney diseases, diabetes, tuberculosis among others, are at an alarming risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes, including death. "Tobacco is the entirely-preventable common risk factor of these conditions that increase the deadly risk of serious outcomes of COVID-19." Professor Kant said.