The tobacco industry is responsible for more than 8 million deaths per year, but to help tobacco users quit, governments need to implement smoke-free workplace policies, raise tobacco taxes, and create support networks, the World Health Organization said in a press release on World No Tobacco Day.
According to the WHO, over 70% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide lack access to the tools they need to quit. And when the news came out that smokers were more likely to develop severe disease with Covid-19 compared to non-smokers, it triggered millions of smokers to want to quit tobacco.
“But without adequate support, quitting can be incredibly challenging.
“The nicotine found in tobacco is highly addictive and creates dependence. The behavioral and emotional ties to tobacco use — like having a cigarette with your coffee, craving tobacco, feelings of sadness or stress — make it hard to kick the habit,” the WHO says.
With professional support and cessation services, however, tobacco users double their chances of quitting successfully, the WHO adds.
WHO recommends North Macedonia increase support services for quitting smoking
That’s why the WHO has launched a year-long “Commit to Quit” campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2021, its Skopje office wrote.
The campaign aims to empower 100 million tobacco users to make a quit attempt by creating networks of support and increasing access to services proven to help tobacco users quit successfully.
This will be achieved by scaling-up existing services such as brief advice from health professionals and national toll free quit lines, as well as launching innovative services like Florence, WHO’s first digital health worker, and chatbot support programs on WhatsApp and Viber.
The campaign is part of WHO’s technical package named MPOWER, which supports the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control key strategies, such as raising tobacco taxes, creating smoke-free environments and offering help to quit.
Switching to e-cigarettes is not quitting
Over the last two decades, global tobacco use has fallen by 60 million people.
But the decrease varies by region and the tobacco industry has started to vigorously target low-and middle-income countries with traditional cigarettes, while pushing its new and emerging products in higher income countries.
Over the last decade, the tobacco industry has promoted e-cigarettes as cessation aids under the guises of contributing to global tobacco control.
Meanwhile, they have employed strategic marketing tactics to hook children on this same portfolio of products, making them available in over 15,000 attractive flavors.
The scientific evidence on e-cigarettes as cessation aids is inconclusive and there is a lack of clarity as to whether these products have any role to play in smoking cessation. Switching from conventional tobacco products to e-cigarettes is not quitting.
“We must be guided by science and evidence, not the marketing campaigns of the tobacco industry – the same industry that has engaged in decades of lies and deceit to sell products that have killed hundreds of millions of people”, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “E-cigarettes generate toxic chemicals, which have been linked to harmful health effects such as cardiovascular disease and lung disorders.”
Smoke-free workplaces protect employees, taxes make lethal products less available
On World No-Tobacco Day 2021, WHO urges governments to help tobacco users quit by providing the support, services, policies and tobacco taxes that enable people to quit.
Smoke-free policies have the potential to protect non-smokers, including over 65,000 children and adolescents who die every year from exposure to second-hand smoke.
As an example, in 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution for Smoke-free United Nations Premises, and in 2012, the United Nations Economic and Social Council called for “system-wide coherence on tobacco control.”
The creation of smoke-free campuses puts into practice the United Nations smoke-free workplace policy, which aims to protect approximately 100,000 UN staff members from second-hand tobacco smoke.
The WHO also notes that tobacco costs economies over US$ 1.4 trillion in health expenditures and lost productivity, which is equivalent to 1.8% of annual global GDP.
Increasing tobacco taxes helps make these lethal products less affordable and helps cover health-care costs for the diseases they create.
