Tobacco-quitting cigarettes on World No Tobacco Day 2014

Taiwanese designer Tseng Yi Wen has conceived a series of 4 tobacco-quitting cigarettes aimed to break smoking habits. the concept behind each would make tobacco consumption significantly less, while still allowing for an occasional smoke.

Tobacco-day’ prints the date on every cigarette, reminding the smoker of how many they have consumed, and to limit the allowed number of smokes per month. 

‘could you give me a cigarette?’ is a common question often asked by smokers. yi wen has conceived a single cigarette that is sharable, to be broken into two parts. by dividing the tobacco, you help reduce the other person’s smoking amount, and your own.

 

E-cigarettes on World No Tobacco Day 2014

Refilling e-cigarettes requires the use of liquid nicotine, or “e-liquids,” that can cause adverse reactions such as vomiting, seizures, cardiac problems, and death to both children and adults when absorbed through the skin or ingested.

Widely available online, the concentration of nicotine sold in e-liquids varies from 1.8% up to 10%, which can can be deadly. Experts say children are lured by the bright-colored, sweet-smelling substance. The number of calls to poison control concerning liquid nicotine increased 300% from 2012 to 2013, according to the National Poison Data System.

World No Tobacco Day 2014 is 31 May 2014

For a long time, the tobacco industry has fiercely opposed levies on tobacco products and launched intense campaigns against efforts to raise tobacco taxes, making the fight to curb tobacco use challenging. The reality is that raising taxes on tobacco products is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, generate revenue for health programs and most importantly, save lives. That’s why the World Health Organization (WHO) is putting tobacco taxes back on the agenda for World No Tobacco Day 2014.

According to WHO estimates, if all countries increased tobacco excise taxes by 50% per pack this would result in 49 million fewer smokers and 11 million lives saved. Plus, governments around the world would earn an extra $101 billion that they could put towards health and social programs.

Raising taxes on tobacco and making tobacco products more expensive is particularly effective in reducing tobacco use in developing countries, where people often do not get adequate treatment if they fall sick from illnesses associated with tobacco use like cancer.

WHO collects and analyzes data of tax prices around the world and tracks best practices. It advises governments on how best to strengthen their tax systems and raise tax rates. We know that some countries are already benefitting from increased tobacco taxes.  Turkey, for example, has steadily increased excise taxes since 2008. Within the following four years, tobacco sales had fallen by 12%. In 2008, 22 countries had tax rates sufficiently high enough to impact consumption. In 2012, that had increased to 32 countries.

World No Tobacco Day - 31 May 2014

Raise taxes on tobacco

The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Unless we act, the epidemic will kill more than 8 million people every year by 2030. More than 80% of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries.

For World No Tobacco Day 2014, WHO and partners call on countries to raise taxes on tobacco.

 

Reduce tobacco consumption, save lives

 

Under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), countries should implement tax and price policies on tobacco products as a way to reduce tobacco consumption. Research shows that higher taxes are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups and in preventing young people from starting to smoke. A tax increase that increases tobacco prices by 10% decreases tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and by up to 8% in most low- and middle-income countries.

Furthermore, increasing excise taxes on tobacco is considered to be the most cost-effective tobacco control measure. The World Health Report 2010 indicated that a 50% increase in tobacco excise taxes would generate a little more than US$ 1.4 billion in additional funds in 22 low-income countries. If allocated to health, government health spending in these countries could increase by up to 50%.

Goals

The ultimate goal of World No Tobacco Day is to contribute to protecting present and future generations not only from the devastating health consequences due to tobacco, but also from the social, environmental and economic scourges of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Specific goals of the 2014 campaign are that:

• governments increase taxes on tobacco to levels that reduce tobacco consumption;
• individuals and civil society organizations encourage their governments to increase taxes on tobacco to levels that reduce consumption.