World No Tobacco Day 2023: Tobacco, the gateway to cancer and death

World No Tobacco Day is observed on the 31st of May every year by the World Health Organization and public health champions around the globe. The purpose is to spread awareness against the harmful effects of tobacco on human health, including the deaths caused by tobacco consumption and addiction.

World No Tobacco Day 2023 Theme

This year’s theme is ‘We need food, not tobacco’. According to World Health Organization, the 2023 global campaign aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable, nutritious crops. It will also aim to expose the tobacco industry’s efforts to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops, thereby contributing to the global food crisis.

Harmful effects on our body

There are multiple ill-effects of tobacco on the human body, warns Dr Anirban Biswas, noted Pulmonologist from Bardhaman, West Bengal, India. A person smoking cigarette or tobacco in any other form or chewing tobacco is at a very high risk of falling prey to heart attack, cerebral stroke and gangrene of limbs.

Tobacco consumption leads to respiratory diseases like COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a common lung disease causing restricted airflow and breathing problems.

Tobacco is also majorly responsible for several types of cancer of the lungs, oral cancer, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract and kidney cancer.

How tobacco affects pregnant women, elderly and children

Tobacco has the deadliest effect on expecting mothers and may even lead to abortion, says the doctor. A pregnant woman consuming tobacco also negatively impacts the child in the womb and the baby is born with anomalies like cleft lip, less weight and several neurological problems. The doctor also warns about the deadly effects of passive smoking especially on the elderly people and children.

To learn how smoking or any other form of tobacco consumption kills humans, watch this video: