Awareness of the harmful effects of nicotine addiction

The world observes No Tobacco Day on the second Wednesday of March each year. The major objective of this day is to make smokers aware of the harmful effects of nicotine addiction about health.

This year, the day is celebrated on March 9. The No Tobacco Day movement was first launched in 1984 in the UK. And since then, it is an annual event that helps people and raises awareness about the harmful effects of smoking on human health.

The day pushes people to quit smoking to live a healthy life. Researchers in 1920 established a link between smoking and cancer and other serious illnesses. This prompted campaigns around the world asking people to quit smoking.

8 million die from tobacco use annually

According to World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills more than eight million people every year. More than seven million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use. About 1.2 million people die after being exposed to second-hand smoke.

WHO figures further suggest that more than 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.

Smoking is the most common form of tobacco consumption in the world. Other tobacco products include cigars, cigarillos, waterpipe tobacco, rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis, etc.

The harmful effects of tobacco use

Harmful effects of smoking include cough and throat irritation, bad breath, smelly clothes,

uneven skin and tooth discoloration, serious fetal conditions, heart disease and lung cancer.

How to fight smoking

If you want to quit smoking, join the m-cessation program Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

Anyone who wants to quit smoking can give a missed call to 011-22901701 to register. You can also register online by filling in your mobile number and email id through http://www.nhp.gov.in/quit-tobacco.

After that, a two-way SMS process begins, in which the registered user will receive a welcome SMS QUITNOW, immediately from the short code assigned via the National Computing Center, namely 5616115.

This will be followed by other text messages, some of which will require a response.

The Indian government enacted the Cigarettes (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act in 1975 as part of its tobacco control measures. The legal warning “smoking cigarettes is harmful to health” has therefore been affixed to all cigarette packets, cartons and cigarette advertisements.