Today, we join the world to mark the World No Tobacco Day, as a way of lending our voice to create awareness about the health risks associated with tobacco use, and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco use has been proven to be the leading cause of preventable death around the world and accounts for about 10% of all deaths each year. It does not only affect direct users; non-smokers are also affected by second-hand smoke. If left unchecked, the use of tobacco is expected to cause 10 million deaths a year by 2030, with at least 70% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. We at C4C are particularly concerned with the fact that a vast majority of smokers develop this habit before the age of 18.
Source: www.who.int
For this year’s World No Tobacco Day, countries are being called upon to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products. This measure, if adopted, would increase the effectiveness of health warnings, reduce false and misleading messages and ultimately reduce the attractiveness of smoking to young people. We believe that if more effort at preventing the use of tobacco is targeted at young people, the problems posed by tobacco use will be checked effectively.
The bulk of the world's population is made up of young people and the future of the world lies in their hands. Let's keep them alive!