Special to the Sydenham Current
This May 31st marks ‘World No Tobacco Day’ as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). ‘World No Tobacco Day’ began in 1987 to “draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes worldwide.”
In Canada, a great amount of work has been accomplished in addressing the health related burden of tobacco use. This year, less young people are starting to use tobacco, more smokers are planning to quit and there are more policies protecting the public from exposure to second-hand smoke than ever before.
Despite these gains, almost 38,000 Canadians continue to die yearly as a result of tobacco use. To combat this preventable health burden a number of health groups have proposed a “Tobacco Endgame” strategy to reduce Canadian smoking rates to “Under 5% by 2035”.
To accomplish this goal, many new and innovative policies are being planned. For instance, Health Canada has recently been mandated to introduce “Plain and Standardized Tobacco Packaging” that would prohibit all promotional features on all packages. This includes things like colours, images, logos, slogans, distinctive fonts, finishes and creating standards for the product itself.
Many countries across the world have already adopted these measures and research to date shows it helps:
– Discourage young people from starting to smoke
– Decrease the amount of cigarettes smoked
– Increase the recall of health warning labels
– Encourage quit attempts
– Reduce relapse in those who have quit
For more information about local quit supports this ‘World No Tobacco Day’ please visit: www.CKPublicHealth.com/quit
