Today, May 31st 2011, is World No Tobacco Day 2011.

Today, May 31st 2011, is World No Tobacco Day 2011. 

World No Tobacco Day is an annual campaign organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) to inform the public on the dangers of smoking. This year’s theme is “Tobacco Health Warnings.” Tobacco health warnings are labels that appear on tobacco products that inform consumers of the harmful effects of using tobacco. The WHO supports the use of tobacco health warnings, particularly when they contain both pictures and words, such as the representative examples below:

In Canada, these labels appear on all cigarette packs and are displayed on both sides of the packaging. One can imagine the impact these graphic images have on consumers, particularly young people and those just taking up the habit. And in fact their effectiveness in curbing smoking rates has been proven in numerous studies. It appears that when it comes to tobacco health warnings, a picture is worth a thousand words.

To those of you wondering why you’ve never seen these labels before the reason is that the U.S. does not mandate them. Eight years ago Canada became the first country to require pictorial health warnings on all tobacco products. Now, there are over 20 countries with a combined population of 700 million people that have implemented pictorial warnings including Brazil, Panama, Iran, the UK, and Hong Kong. Four more countries — Djibouti, Mauritius, Latvia, and Switzerland — are planning to implement them by 2010. Given the overwhelming evidence supporting pictorial warnings and their increasing adoption by nations around the world, I wonder if and when the United States will take action.

Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. Here are some sobering statistics from the WHO tobacco-free website:

§                     There are more than one billion smokers in the world.

§                     Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year — an average of one person every six seconds — and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.

§                     Tobacco kills up to half of all users.

§                     Tobacco use is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of deaths in the world.

§                     100 million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths from tobacco use in the 21st century.

As The World No Tobacco Day 2009 reports states: “Tobacco is unique among legal consumer products — and not in a positive sense. It is the only such product that kills when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer. Up to one half of all smokers will die from a tobacco-related disease, and half of these will die prematurely.”

For those of you who use tobacco and are thinking about quitting remember that your doctor can help. Studies show that by partnering with their doctors smokers double their chances of successfully quitting. In addition to counseling you on quitting, your doctor can provide you with medications that are proven to help motivated individuals kick the habit and become tobacco free.

To learn more, go to http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2009/en/.

To learn more about quitting, go to http://www.smokefree.gov/.