World No Tobacco Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 31.
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This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May................. Read more
WHO TAKES AIM AT TOBACCO ADS TARGETING WOMEN
The World Health Organization (WHO) has put cigarette advertising aimed at women at the center of its annual World No Tobacco Day. The organization says the tobacco industry is unscrupulous in its attempts to market cigarettes to young women in general, especially in the developing world.
Douglas Bettcher, the director of the WHO's tobacco free initiative, told Deutsche Welle that the prevalence of deadly diseases among smokers, such as cancer, emphysema, and heart disease, means the tobacco industry is "always looking for new populations, such as young women, to light up and support their profit motives."
And the group's Web site claims that "women are the main targets of the tobacco industry's efforts to win new consumers."
There is certainly more room for growth in the market for female smokers, statistics show. Across the world, just 9 percent of women and 40 percent of men currently smoke. Meanwhile, a WHO study of 151 countries shows 7 percent of adolescent girls smoke, compared with 12 percent of adolescent boys.
Female smokers are catching up to male smokers, according to statistics. In several countries - including, in Europe, Bulgaria, Croatia, and the Czech Republic - the number of female tobacco users outweighs the male users, the WHO study showed.
