May 31 - World Day to combat smoking

Every year on May 31, WHO and partner organizations celebrate World No Tobacco Day, drawing attention to the health risks associated with tobacco use, and calling for an effective policy to reduce the extent of tobacco use. Smoking - known risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, causes lung and other cancers, increases the severity of pneumonia, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. In Ukraine there are much higher death rates from causes related to smoking among men and women than in the EU. According to World Bank, Ukraine has a very high prevalence of smoking: 36% of the population aged 18-65 are smokers belonging to the category of "smoke now," and 31% of them - those who are classified as "daily smokers". Men make up 80% of those who smoke daily. Smoking prevalence increases with decreasing age population in younger age groups (<40 years) were more likely to belong to the category "Smoking Now" and "daily smokers". Smoking not only begins at an early age, but the average age of smokers who smoke daily decreased with time. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2016, WHO and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control calls on all countries to join using simple (standardized) packaging of tobacco products. Simple packaging is an important measure to reduce demand, because it makes tobacco products less attractive, limiting the use of tobacco packaging for advertising and promotion of tobacco.