31st May, 2017 The World Health Organization and its partners, TongaHealth and the Ministry of Health, marks this year’s “World No Tobacco Day Campaign” on the 31st May with the theme, “Tobacco – A threat to development,” calling on countries to arrange and accelerate tobacco control efforts as part of their responses to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to the WHO, this campaign will demonstrate the threats that the tobacco industry pose to the sustainable development of all countries, including the health and economic well being of their citizens. It also highlights that governments and the public should join hands to promote health and development by tackling the global tobacco crisis.
Goals of the World No Tobacco Day 2017 campaign are as follows:
- Highlight the links between the use of tobacco products, tobacco control and sustainable development.
- Encourage countries to include tobacco control in their national responses to 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
- Support Member States and civil society to combat tobacco industry interference in political processes, in turn leading to stronger national tobacco control action
- Encourage broader public and partner participation in national, regional and global efforts to develop and implement development strategies and plans and achieve goals that prioritize action on tobacco control
- Demonstrate how individuals can contribute to making a sustainable, tobacco-free world,
either by committing to never taking up tobacco products, or by quitting the habit.
In addition to protecting our citizens from the harms of tobacco use, countries will also benefit by reducing the economic toll on national economies.
The aim of the Sustainable Development Agenda, and its 17 global goals, is to ensure that “no one is left behind.“ Tobacco control has been enshrined in the Sustainable Development Agenda. It is seen as one of the most effective means to help achieve SDG target 3.4 of a one-third reduction globally, by 2030, of premature deaths from Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, cancers and chronic obstructed pulmonary disease. Strengthening implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco in all countries is an additional target to be met by governments developing national sustainable development responses (WHO).
Here in Tonga on the 31st of May, the Ministry of Health with TongaHealth will host a program to mark this event that will showcase the risk of smoking and how it affects the lives of smokers as well as secondhand smokers. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. It kills about half of all long-term smokers. In Tonga, 46% of males and 13% of females smoke with about 90% of this population smoking daily. It not only causes death, but illness and disability that prevent people from caring for their families and can push them into poverty. On Television Tonga, Tuesday 30th of May the tobacco control unit of the Ministry of Health represented by Dr. ‘OfaTukia and TongaHealth will highlight this important event and urge users to quit as it not only affects them individually but it is a threat to our country’s development.
ENDS
Issued by the: TongaHealth and the World Health Organization