World Day Without Tobacco: Healthy Youth
Whether children and young people can develop healthily depends on many factors; among them whether they smoke or not. The World Day Without Tobacco on May 31 makes tobacco a threat to sustainable development.
"Tobacco - a threat to development": This is the theme of the World Day Without Tobacco on May 31. This threat can be particularly well established when it comes to the healthy development of children and adolescents. This is because tobacco advertising is often targeted at children and adolescents, which obviously has an effect: The majority of smokers (57 percent) consumed their first cigarette before the age of 18.
An important step to better protect young people from tobacco would be to restrict advertising and sponsorship by the tobacco industry. Unfortunately, Parliament missed the opportunity last year to better anchor youth protection in legislation.
Commitment to prevention
On a political level, Switzerland lags behind its neighboring countries in terms of youth protection. This is very regrettable. The Lung League will continue to advocate effective protection of minors at both the political and behavioral levels.
The health promotion project for learners ready4life was launched by the Lung League in 2016 as a pilot project in six cantons. In individualized text messages, ready4life addresses life skills such as self- and social competence or dealing with stress, thus strengthening resilience to the use of addictive substances such as tobacco and alcohol.
Worldwide commitment
World No Tobacco Day was established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. Its purpose is to raise awareness each year of the health and other risks of tobacco use and to advocate for effective policies that reduce tobacco use worldwide.
Globally, 7 million deaths are attributed to tobacco use each year - according to the WHO, this number could increase to 8 million by 2030 without intervention. The WHO also emphasizes the economic costs: health care costs and reduced productivity are the consequences of tobacco-related diseases. 80% of these premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries and prevent them from achieving their development goals.
The WHO also criticizes the high use of pesticides and fertilizers in tobacco planting. These poison water and soil; in addition, tobacco plantations contribute massively to global deforestation.
Text: Swiss Lung League/WHO/SP
