May 31, 2008 is the 21st World No Tobacco Day sponsored by the World Health Organization. The theme of this smoke-free day is “Smoke-free youth”, the slogan is “No tobacco advertising and promotion, ensuring smokeless youth”.
Since the 1950s, a large number of epidemiological studies worldwide have confirmed that smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer. In order to arouse the international community’s emphasis on tobacco harm to human health, the World Health Organization recommended in November 1987 that April 7th of each year be set as “World No Tobacco Day” and was implemented in 1988. Since 1989, the World No Tobacco Day has been changed to May 31 of each year. As of today, “World No Tobacco Day” has been successfully held for 21 sessions. Each non-smoking day has developed different themes, targeting the people, the enterprise, as well as the venue, the environment, etc., put forward corresponding initiatives and slogans, and received a good social response.
With the rising tide of smoking bans in recent years, the momentum is getting louder and louder. More people realize the dangers of smoking and know the World No Tobacco Day. The Chinese government has also begun to pay attention to the issue of tobacco control. In 2006, it joined the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and has successively formulated a series of smoke control measures to control tobacco, which have received good results.
According to information provided by the Tobacco Free Youth Sports Organization, about 180 million children in our country live in the environment of secondhand smoke, and 40% to 80% of children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home. According to a survey conducted by Beijing Aiwei in 2007, 80.8% of smokers started smoking between 15-25 years old. Seven hundred million children worldwide (almost half of the world’s young people) breathe the air polluted by cigarette smoke and become innocent passive smokers. Children and adolescents are the future of the motherland. Once they have tried tobacco, a highly addictive product, it is easy to cause lifelong dependence on tobacco. With the rapid expansion of the youth smokers, more people are paying attention to this younger smoking group and calling for prevention of smoking from young people.
This year’s No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization launched the theme of “Smoke-free Youth”, which requires all levels of education administration to organize primary and secondary schools and childcare institutions to actively create “smoke-free” Campus, rdquo; activities, school teaching areas must not have smoking rooms, smoking areas and other relevant regulations. I hope that all sectors of the society will pay attention to the healthy growth of young people and create a good environment for them to grow. It is the responsibility of everyone in all walks of life to keep young people away from tobacco. In particular, schools, parents and doctors who have the most contact with young people should pay more attention to the problem of tobacco control among young people and actively invest in the work of young people to control tobacco.
In China, the hosting of the Beijing Olympics made the 2008 World No Tobacco Day exceptionally unusual. As the Olympics approached, Beijing is striving to spread the concept of “Smoke-free Olympics” to all corners, and is determined to create a green “Health Olympics”, a concept that has become the focus of global attention. In order to meet the “Smoke-free Olympics”, combined with the “Smoke-free Youth” theme, the nationwide campaign has been actively carried out “smoking cessation contest”, “, smoke-free campus”, “smoke-free hospitals” ” and other related activities. Beijing, the host city of the Olympic Games, also started to implement a comprehensive taxi ban on October 1 last year. The tobacco control activities were soon expanded to the city’s catering industry. From May 1 this year, Beijing officially implemented the “Several Provisions on the Smoking Scope of Public Places in Beijing”, which expanded the scope of smoking bans and was called the most stringent new smoking ban. In addition, the “Beijing 2008 Smoke-free Olympics Work Plan (Draft)” has been initially determined. The plan is scheduled to be held in accordance with the smoke-free Olympic work plan before and after the 2008 Olympic Games, and the “No Smoking Order” will be issued for eight types of venues. The launch of this series of tobacco control measures has been widely praised and praised.
To control tobacco, China is working hard. Although there is still a long way to go to achieve a total ban on smoking, there is still a lot of resistance, but as the famous international tobacco control expert Professor Ying Yingnian said, “If the whole country is working hard, the method is right, and the promotion is serious, China’s goal of completing a comprehensive smoking ban in public places will be It can be done, but it is just around the corner. “This Olympic Games is a great opportunity for China to launch a comprehensive ban on smoking. It is hoped that the smoking ban will not only be the Olympic Games, but will continue to play a long-term and positive role in promoting the global anti-smoking campaign and human health, thus truly achieving a smoke-free city. Dreams, only in this way, our young people can truly stay away from tobacco, stay away from harm, and enjoy the smokeless youth in a good social environment.