World No Tobacco Day 2018 to be celebrated tomorrow, focus on 'Tobacco and heart disease'

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated each year on 31st May. The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2018 is "Tobacco and heart disease." It will focus on the impact tobacco has on the cardiovascular health of people worldwide.

World No Tobacco Day 2018 coincides with a range of global initiatives and opportunities aimed at addressing the tobacco epidemic and its impact of public health, particularly in causing the death and suffering of millions of people globally, WHO says.

Despite the known harms of tobacco to heart health, and the availability of solutions to reduce related death and disease, knowledge among large sections of the public that tobacco is one of the leading causes of CVD is low.

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Tobacco also has carbon monoxide, which blends with haemoglobin in the blood more easily than oxygen does, thus affecting the oxygen supply in the body.

The carbon monoxide prevents the blood system from effectively carrying oxygen around the body, specifically to vital organs such as the heart and brain, the experts said, adding that apart from regular smokers, those who inhale the smoke passively may also be at risk.

According to a recent study published in The Journal of Physiology, smoking could directly damage the muscles by reducing the number of blood vessels in leg muscles, which in turn reduce the amount of oxygen and nutrients the muscles receive.

This may impact the metabolism and activity levels.

Moreover, smoking also affects both male and female fertility, doctors said.

Every minute, smokers get through nearly 11 million cigarettes and 10 die from the habit, in an industry that generates billions of dollars.

There are around one billion smokers in the world, about a seventh of the global population, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and other estimates.

China has the highest number: From its population of 1.3 billion, about 315 million are smokers and they consume more than a third of the world’s cigarettes, the WHO said in a report last year. Indonesia has the highest proportion of smokers at 76% of men aged over 15 years.

About 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- and middle-income countries and 226 million of them are considered poor.

The global tobacco epidemic kills more than 7 million people each year, of which close to 900 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.

Quitting is the best way, the experts said while discouraging the use of alternatives like e-cigarettes. Other measures like clinical interventions, counselling and behavioural therapies can help people quit tobacco abuse.

World No Tobacco Day 2018 aims to highlight the links between the use of tobacco products and heart and other cardiovascular diseases, increase awareness within the broader public of the impact tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke have on cardiovascular health.

It aims to provide opportunities for the public, governments and others to make commitments to promote heart health by protecting people from use of tobacco products.