May 31 is World No Tobacco Day
(VOV) - World No Tobacco Day – observed each May 31st – is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption.
The day is further intended to draw global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and its negative health effects, which currently lead to in excess of 5.4 million deaths annually.
At a meeting on May 30 in HCM City, Director of the Health Ministry’s Administration Department of Medical Services, Dr Luong Ngoc Khue, believes Vietnam should implement measures to reduce the smoking rate among male adults from its current 47.4% rate in the time ahead.
Vietnam is one the top 15 nations with the highest number of cigarette smokers. The smoking rate among adult males and females is 47.4% and 1.4% respectively Khue said, adding that in excess of 33 million are forced to breathe second hand smoke every day.
The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day in 1987. In the past nearly three decades, the day has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance across the globe from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers, and the tobacco industry.
The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.
More than 80% of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries.