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World
No Tobacco Day 2007
The World
No Tobacco Day is a unique global event established to call attention to the
impact of tobacco use on public health and to effectively reduce individual
tobacco dependence.
The theme of World No Tobacco Day
2007 is “Smoke free Insides” and focuses on 100% smoke-free environments as
an effective measure to protect the public – including women and children,
and people at their workplaces – from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.
The main messages of this year’s WNTD
include the following:
 Second-hand tobacco smoke kills and causes
serious illnesses.
100% smoke-free environments protect workers
and the public from the serious harmful effects of tobacco smoke.
Most people in the world are non-smokers and
have a right not to be exposed to other people's smoke.
Smoke-free environments are good for business,
as families with children, most non-smokers and even smokers often prefer to
go to smoke-free places.
Smoke-free environments provide the many
smokers who want to quit with a strong incentive to cut down or stop smoking
altogether.
Smoke-free environments help prevent people –
especially the young – from starting to smoke.
Taking this theme forward, the Cancer
Patients Aid Association, Mumbai, organized a series of events in
collaboration with WHO and the Ministry of Health
& Family Welfare to commemorate WNTD.
In order to raise awareness about the
need for air free of tobacco smoke, a discussion followed by a press
conference was organized on the subject. Senior representatives from the
film/fashion industry, law enforcement agencies like police, MOHFW and WHO
participated. The celebrities urged the media to cover the issues related to
tobacco control more extensively so that anti tobacco messages can reach to
larger audiences. In the evening, a musical concert on the theme of WNTD was
organized. The concert was attended by youth, film/television personalities
and media persons. Anti tobacco messages were given by the singers and
celebrities who are role models for the youth. The rights of the non-smoker
were highlighted. The events generated a lot of awareness and media coverage
about the tobacco menace in general and the need for implementation of smoke
free policies in particular.
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