May 31 – World No Tobacco Day

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.

The harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment is vast and growing adding unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystems. Tobacco kills over 8 million people every year and destroys our environment, further harming human health, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste.

• 600,000,000 trees chopped down to make cigarettes;
• 84,000,000 tonnes of CO2 Emissions released into the air raising global temperatures;
• 22,000,000,000 tonnes of water used to make cigarettes;
• Tobacco kills up to half of its users;
• Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke;
• Over 80% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries;
• In 2020, 22.3% of the global population used tobacco, 36.7% of all men and 7.8% of the world’s women;
• To address the tobacco epidemic, WHO Member States adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003.

(WHO, 2022)

More information:
https://www.who.int/health-topics/tobacco#tab=tab_1 
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/2022#