December 8th local time, WHO launched a year-long “promise quitting smoking” campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2021 and released “100+ Reasons to Quit Smoking”, with the goal of supporting at least 100 million people to quit smoking.
According to WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has led millions of smokers to express their willingness to quit smoking, and the “Commit to Quit Smoking” campaign will help create an environment conducive to smoking cessation by advocating for strong smoking cessation policies; increasing smoking cessation services; raising awareness of tobacco industry strategies; and enhancing smoking The ability of people to quit smoking promotes the concept that quitting smoking is victory.
WHO will work with relevant partners to create digital network communities to provide people with the social support they need to quit smoking. The pandemic has increased social and economic pressures and made it harder to quit smoking.
Around 780 million people worldwide have expressed their desire to quit smoking, but only 30% have access to tools that can help them quit. WHO will work with partners to provide people with the tools and resources they need to successfully quit smoking.
Dr. Tedros Tedros, Director-General of WHO, said that smoking kills about 8 million people every year, and the COVID-19 epidemic provides smokers with a further appropriate reason to give up this bad habit.
WHO issued a scientific briefing earlier this year, which pointed out that smokers are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 and death. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes.
