Take Action Against Tobacco on World No Tobacco Day, May 31

If you are still smoking, use World No Tobacco Day as your motivation to quit.

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 31, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since 1999, the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day has conducted activities in the United States on that date. Each year, the coalition and programs that it supports around the nation reach millions of people with the message that we must all strive to become a smoke-free nation and a smoke-free world.

Each year, the WHO designates a theme for World No Tobacco Day.

• In 2003, the theme was how tobacco use is promoted through fashion and film.

• In 2004, the theme was the connection between tobacco and poverty around the world. In the United States, the coalition selected a related theme: Up in Smoke--Tobacco’s Cost to the Family.

• For 2005, the theme is Health Professionals and Tobacco Control.

• For 2006, the theme is: "Tobacco: Deadly in any form or disguise."

Linda Sarna, RN, DNSc, associate professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and a member of the board of directors for the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day, says World No Tobacco Day is a day about both preventing people from smoking and quitting successfully.

Both Sarna and Ruth McCorkle, associate director of cancer control at the Yale Cancer Center, believes the day provides smokers with a reason to quit. McCorkle says the decision to quit smoking is the first step in a process that can be long and difficult.

“Helping people to even think about it is important. Let’s bring into awareness that quitting would be a good idea. Some people will never even contemplate quitting. Even just to think about it would be a good idea,” McCorkle says.

Why Quit?

According to McCorkle, “There are absolutely no benefits to smoking.” The benefits to smokers who decide to quit, however, are endless. These are just some of the benefits. 

• Increased lung capacity

• A lowered risk for many diseases, such as heart disease and cancer

• Extra money that would have been spent on cigarettes

McCorkle does warn, however, that people who quit may initially not feel well because of the side effects of quitting. Eventually, though, “your health will be better, and you’ll really feel better about yourself,” she says.

Sarna agrees, “We do know that there are profound health effects within the first year of stopping, and those are primarily focused on reduced cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, the risk for certain cancers continues for many, many years after.”

Making the Move to Become Smoke-Free

If the first step to quitting is deciding to quit, what follows? According to McCorkle, smokers who are trying to quit should take small steps at first. “I think once you get people motivated, you have to find out what the best strategy is for them and what their previous coping styles have been,” she says.

An example of taking it slowly, she explains, is gradually modifying behavior in an effort to avoid situations that may make you want to smoke. For example, “If you and a friend or someone in your family go to a restaurant and you’d normally sit in the smoking section, try sitting in the nonsmoking section.”

In Clearing the Air: How to Quit Smoking…and Quit for Keeps, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health also advise taking small steps. The institutes cite several examples for quitting smoking, including these.

• Delaying the first cigarette of the day by an hour, if possible

• Vowing to not smoke in the car, if that is where you tend to light up

• Trying to spend time with nonsmoking friends as opposed to friends who are smokers

Smokers who have made the decision to quit may want to visit the National Cancer Institute’s website for more information.

Sarna urges that it’s important to recognize that it’s hard to quit smoking. What makes it so hard? “Tobacco addiction,” Sarna states. “We have an incredible amount of evidence that nicotine is an addictive drug. It changes your brain, and you have physiological symptoms of withdrawal. There are other aspects, too. It may become part of p eople’s day-to-day behavior. But the number one and most important reason that it’s so difficult to quit is addiction.”

Although there is no guaranteed way to quit, Sarna says, “The scientific literature says that most people need a combination of skills to quit, meaning knowledge, social support, and also (not for everyone, but for some) pharmacological aids that will help with the withdrawal symptoms.” Many people try to quit more than once before they finally stop smoking for good. So don’t get discouraged--try again!

She adds, “We know that people can quit cold turkey, but most of those people will relapse within one year, and we know that using some of these other strategies will increase the long-term cessation rates.”

To learn more, go to the World Health Organization’s Web site, http://www.who.int/tobacco/communications/events/wntd/2006/en/index.html