World No Tobacco Day: Low quitting success rates make smoking more dreadful

More than 30 years after World No Tobacco Day was launched to raise awareness of the devastating health effects of tobacco use, there are still more than a billion smokers in the world, struggling to quit.

Every year, on 31 May, WHO and partners mark World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), highlighting the health and other risks associated with tobacco use, and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

More than 30 years after World No Tobacco Day was launched to raise awareness of the devastating health effects of tobacco use, there are still more than a billion smokers in the world. Researchers are mobilizing globally to improve cessation and harm-reduction tools to help raise quitting success rates that are, at most, between 12% and 23%.

Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Friday, the UN health agency launched a campaign to highlight the devastating impact smoking continues to have on human health and urged countries to step up the fight against the dangerous habit that causes some eight million deaths annually.

The focus of this year's observance is lung health because tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of deadly lung and respiratory diseases.

Governments 'lagging behind' in their commitments

Although the percentage of people using tobacco globally has declined in recent decades - from 27 per cent in 2000, to 20 per cent in 2016 – WHO insists that governments are "lagging behind" their commitments to reduce tobacco use by 30 per cent by 2025.

To counter this, the UN agency is calling for quicker implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which provides practical advice on how to implement tobacco control measures covering all sectors of government.

The Convention highlights the need for greater public awareness strategies, such as creating smoke-free indoor public spaces, workplaces and public transport, along with banning tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and significantly increasing taxes on tobacco products, which should be sold with graphic health warnings.

In parallel to these activities, WHO's advice remains that it's never too late to quit smoking, as lung function improves within two weeks of stopping.

"Quitting tobacco use has the potential to reverse some, but not all, of the damage done by tobacco smoke to the lungs," WHO says. "Quitting as soon as possible is therefore essential to prevent the onset of chronic lung disease, which is potentially irreversible once it has developed."

To help people who want to quit, WHO also recommends the implementation of a toll-free 'quitline' service which offers behavioural counselling to callers, helping to boost quit rates by as much as four per cent. Mobile phone-based support for people who want to quit has also proved successful, the UN agency maintains.

These include WHO's "Be He@lthy, Be Mobile" cessation programme – in association with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – which offers personalized support through mobile text messaging.

"These programmes help tobacco users to quit and are efficient and cost-effective," WHO says, noting that in India, the programme achieved a self-reported 19 per cent quit rate after four to six months, compared with a baseline population quit rate, of five per cent.

The programme has been implemented in Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, India, the Philippines and Tunisia, and can be rolled out elsewhere, WHO says.