- World No Tobacco Day is celebrated every year on 31 May with the aim of making people aware about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption.
- The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2023 is “We need food, not tobacco”.
- The World No Tobacco Day initiative was adopted by WHO in 1987.
- After this, resolution WHA 42.19 was passed in 1988, in which 31 May was issued as ‘World No Tobacco Day’.
Smokers in India
- According to this study, there were around20 million smokers in the age group of 15-24 in India in 2019. This is the second largest number of tobacco smokers worldwide.
Global scenario
- According to this study, the number of smokers increased to 1 billion in 2019.
- Tobacco use killed 7 million people.
- Among new smokers, 89% had become addicted by the age of 25.
- There are 155 million smokers worldwide aged 15-24.
- Top 10 countries with the highest number of smokers
- The top 10 countries are China, India, Indonesia, USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam and Philippines.