World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day happened Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO) organized the day. Its theme for the global anti-smoking day was "gender and tobacco" and the harmful effects of tobacco marketing and smoking on women and girls. Countries in the developing world are seeing a rise in women smoking as women become more affluent and have more disposable income to spend on cigarettes. Tobacco companies are beginning to target this increasingly empowered segment of the population. This trend of increased female smoking is mirrored in the LGBT community in California where lesbians and bisexual women smoke nearly three times as much as heterosexual women. The trend worldwide is very troubling.

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world, currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults worldwide, or about 5 million deaths each year, said the WHO. Women make up about 20 percent of the world's 1 billion smokers, but if current tobacco usage continues smoking will kill 8 million people a year by 2030 -- 2.5 million will be women.

Even more alarming is the incidence of smoking among youth. It is estimated that more than 8 percent of girls between 13 and 15, or around 4.7 million girls, are using tobacco products in the Asia-Pacific region, said the WHO. Compare that to LGBT youth smoking in California where 43.7% of LGBT youth smoke!

We have to protect our young people worldwide from the ravages of smoking.

A YouTube video of an Indonesian two-year-old boy, who reportedly smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, angered anti-smoking groups around the world last week. The video has been removed by YouTube.

"The tobacco industry is thriving and if we look at our society, even children have started to smoke," Krida Wacana Christian University (Ukrida) student Stefano Leatemia told The Jakarta Post newspaper on Monday.

WHO is calling for comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship to protect women and girls from images that portray smoking as glamorous or fashionable. Only half of the nations in the Asia-Pacific have bans on tobacco advertising.

We need more than a No Tobacco Day. We need a No Tobacco Life. With activism and personal encouragement we can help keep all of us, including our most vulnerable citizens, from becoming slaves to the noxious product.

Stay in Touch!

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.