Updated January 20, 2015.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) in 1987 as a way to bring worldwide attention to the tobacco epidemic we're up against on the planet today. The first World No Tobacco Day was celebrated on April 7, 1987. Since then, it has been observed on May 31st of every year.
- The Tobacco Epidemic - A Global Crisis
These efforts to raise awareness on a global level are powerful stepping stones that will help break the hold that Big Tobacco has on us.
WNTD 2010
Gender and Tobacco With an Emphasis on Marketing to WomenHere in the United States, it used to be that smoking was a pastime reserved for men, and the diseases that follow tobacco use were theirs to shoulder as well. Most women didn't smoke.
That all changed in the early 1900's when tobacco companies realized that with a bit of carefully crafted marketing targeted at women, they could coax a lot more revenue out of the population. After that, it wasn't long before women started sharing the burden of smoking-related diseases with men, and death by tobacco became an equal-opportunity killer.
According to the WHO, of the more than one billion smokers in the world today, approximately 20% are women. In some countries though, that percentage is growing due to aggressive advertising aimed at women in particular.
This year's WNTD campaign shines a spotlight on the marketing tactics of tobacco manufacturers and how they relate to the rising number of young girls who are starting to smoke in countries around the world.
Highlighted in the WHO's new report, Women and Health: Today's Evidence Tomorrow's Agenda, the WHO emphasizes the need to protect all people, not just women, from the deceptive tactics of tobacco advertising.
While tobacco use is hazardous to the health of both men and women, there are some dangers associated with tobacco that affect women specifically:
- Women who smoke often have more trouble conceiving a child than nonsmoking women.
- Smoking while pregnant increases the risk of premature delivery, low-birth-weight infants, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
- Women smokers who take birth control pills increase their risk of having a stroke, narrowing of blood vessels in the body and blood clots.
- Women smokers have an increased risk of cervical cancer over nonsmoking women.
- Women who smoke often go through menopause earlier than nonsmoking women and experience more severe menopausal symptoms than women who don't smoke.
- Postmenopausal women smokers tend to have lower bone density than do women who do not smoke.
- Women smokers have a higher risk for hip fracture than their nonsmoking female counterparts.
A Call to Action
WNTD 2010 - Gender and Tobacco With an Emphasis on Marketing to Women encourages governments around the world step up and take action. Nations must protect all of their citizens from ruthless tobacco marketing campaigns, with an eye toward safeguarding the health and well-being of their female citizens, the mothers of the world's future generations.If you or a loved one needs quit smoking help, please use the resources below to get started on the path toward freedom.
You can quit smoking, and there is no time like the present to do it.
Sources:
World Health Organization. World No Tobacco Day 2010.
http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2010/announcement/en/index.html.
Accessed May 2010.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/smokingconsequences/
Accessed May 2010.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/womenandtobacco/index.html
Accessed May 2010.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Smoking Medicines to Help You.
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForWomen/ucm118667.htm
Accessed May 2010.