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World No Tobacco Day annually held on 31st of May was first launched in the year 1988 by World Health Organization (WHO). Each year, WHO commemorates this day with an innovative theme to emphasize the health risks which are associated with tobacco use and further advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. This year, 25th World No Tobacco Day will be celebrated with the campaign theme "Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship". Evidences have revealed that comprehensive advertising bans leads to reduction in the number of people starting and continuing smoking. WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control enforces a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship worldwide. However, only 19 countries i.e. 6 percent of the world’s population faces National Ban. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the world today, killing half of the consumers. Globally, it kills nearly 6 million people, of which approx. 0.6 million premature deaths can be attributed to exposure of second hand smoke. It is estimated that 80 per cent of these premature deaths occur among people living in low and middle income countries. As stated in the Report on Tobacco Control (2004), nearly 8-9 lakh people die yearly in India due to diseases related to tobacco use. In India, tobacco is consumed through smoking as well as in smokeless form. The most prevalent form of tobacco usage is smokeless tobacco with 206 million users worldwide, with highest number of users in India. Among smokeless forms of tobacco, khaini (tobacco with lime mixture) is the most common form (11.6%) followed by Gutkha (8.2%) and betel quid with tobacco (6.2%). Among smoking forms of tobacco, bidis are the most prevalent form (9.2%) followed by cigarettes (5.7%). The Nationwide survey reveals that approximately 69 percent males and 50 percent females consume tobacco in one form or the other in India. It is one of the common risk factors for 4 major Non Communicable Diseases (NCD), i.e. Cancer, Cardio-vascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. Evidences have proved that burden of NCD is increasing in India, contributing to poverty, loss of productivity and increase in health costs which is becoming a major barrier in development and achievement of Millennium Development Goals. Tobacco use being a major public health challenge, Government of India has taken various initiatives for tobacco control including National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) piloted during 11th five year plan which is under implementation in 42 districts of 21 states in the country. Government tobacco control policies have attained support through advocacy for tobacco control by civil society and community led initiatives. Although states have achieved different levels of success, tobacco control at the sub national level is still not on priority list and effective execution of tobacco control policies largely remains a challenge. Let us join hands on this day to make India burden free from tobacco related diseases by taking initiatives on enforcing bans on tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship in the country. Resource Box: Swati Singh is an expert content writer. She is very experienced content writer. She has written many of articles on Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd Source: http://www.zimbio.com/Society/articles/btbVDGp3Gw5/Fiinovation+Prevent+Now+Relish+Future?add=True
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