31 May: World No Tobacco Day

• 31 May 2022

Every year World No Tobacco Day is observed on 31st May.

• This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.

Theme

• The theme for the No Tobacco Day 2022 is ‘Tobacco: Threat to our planet’. The theme marks the impact of tobacco on our environment from cultivation, production, distribution and waste after consuming it.

Major Concerns

• Every year the tobacco industry costs the world more than 8 million human lives, 600 million trees, 200 000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water and 84 million tonnes of CO2.
• The majority of tobacco is grown in low-and-middle-income countries, where water and farmland are often desperately needed to produce food for the region. Instead, they are being used to grow deadly tobacco plants, while more and more land is being cleared of forests.
• The WHO report “Tobacco: Poisoning our planet” highlights that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.

The Menace in India

• India is home to approximately 267 million tobacco users (99 million smokers and 199 million smokeless tobacco users).
• The findings of the Tobacco Control Policy (TCP) third round survey in India about tobacco use and the implementation of tobacco control policies has shown that among tobacco users, the proportion of smokeless tobacco use has increased from 72% (2010- 2011) to 80% (2018- 2019) whereas mixed tobacco use (smoked and smokeless) decreased from 11% to 7%, and smoking decreased from 17% to 14% during the same period.

Sin Tax in India

• Currently, the government levies GST of 28 per cent, the highest in the tax slab, on cigarette and tobacco products. Further, there are additional taxes taking the total tax incidence on cigarettes to as much as 50-60%, which is lower than that recommended by the WHO (75%).