Quit Smoking Day (17/11)

Every year on the third Thursday of November, No Smoking Day is celebrated in a number of Western countries around the world. It was installed by the American Cancer Society in 1977.

Tobacco epidemic — is one of the most serious threats to human health. According to the World Health Organization: Globally, 90% of deaths from lung cancer, 75% — from chronic bronchitis and 25% — from coronary heart disease are caused by smoking. Tobacco kills almost half of the people who use it. More than 8 million people die from it every year (of which more than 1.3 million – are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke), and one heavy smoker dies every ten seconds on the planet. Almost half of all children in the world regularly breathe tobacco smoke in public places, and every year 65 thousand children die from diseases associated with exposure to second-hand smoke.

Therefore, the goal of No Smoking Day — is to help reduce the prevalence of tobacco addiction, involve all segments of the population and doctors of all specialties in the fight against smoking, prevent tobacco smoking and inform society about the harmful effects of tobacco on health.

Smoking is considered a bad habit by 47% of the people surveyed, addiction — 38%, incurable disease — 9%, 6% of respondents were unable to determine their attitude towards smoking.

According to 12% of respondents, quitting smoking — is easy, 56% believe it is difficult, 4% believe that — is impossible, 28% have not thought about it. At the same time, 21% of those surveyed tried to quit smoking, but were mostly unsuccessful. 30% of respondents know about the existence of smoking cessation assistance centers, 70% do not know%.

It should be noted that with good awareness of the health hazards of tobacco smoking, few people seek to get rid of nicotine addiction. Either a person does not realize the severity of the consequences of tobacco use on his health or believes that the disease will not affect him, or the habit of smoking is so strong that there is no way to give it up.

Almost half of all children in the world regularly breathe tobacco smoke in public places... (Photo: SLP_London, licensed from Shutterstock.com)

But WHO experts remind that all forms of tobacco use are harmful to health, and there is no harmless dose of tobacco. Scientific research shows that smoking e-cigarettes and hookahs is also dangerous for humans.

Therefore, as part of No Smoking Day in many countries, activists and representatives of health care institutions hold various educational, charitable and other events designed to educate the population about the dangers of nicotine and ways to wean themselves from smoking.

Let us remind you that World No Tobacco Day is celebrated annually on May 31st.



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