To mark 'World No Tobacco Day', top doctors of Bangalore and cancer survivors on Monday joined hands to campaign against the illicit sale of tobacco products.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has embarked May 31 as 'World No Tobacco Day', to highlight the illicit trade of tobacco products as it is a major global concern, which includes health, legal, economic, governance and corruption as well.
Going along with the theme of this year's 'World No Tobacco Day' to 'Stop illicit trade of tobacco products,' this will help in raising awareness on the harmful effects of tobacco.
The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 6,00,000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. As per a WHO report, this epidemic is likely to kill more than 8 million people every year by 2030. More than 80 percent of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries. In 2009, 6 of the top 10 tobacco-producing countries had malnourishment rates between 5 percent and 27 percent.
Commenting on the issue, Ms. Nalini Satyanarayan, a throat cancer survivor said: "We all know the harmful effects of tobacco consumption and I have suffered from it. Being a non-smoker, I have gone through the ordeal and have come out victorious. But it is high time that everyone should come together to take a stand against tobacco consumption. Not only more and more youngsters are getting into the bad habit but the number of people getting affected is increasing as well. It's high time the government should take a decision in making a smoke-free environment."
Present at the conference, Dr. BS Ajaikumar , Oncologist said, "Doctors, cancer sufferers, survivors and citizens have joined together to create awareness on the harmful effects of tobacco since this has proved to be a great burden to the smoker and his family to second hand smokers and to the environment in general creating health hazards and depriving many a family of its bread winner. A commercial product without a single benefit and with numerous reasons that support its ban should be stopped immediately. We are aghast that it is even illegally sold.