May
31
No
Tobacco Day
On
31st May each year WHO celebrates World No
Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks
associated with tobacco use and advocating
for effective policies to reduce consumption.
Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally
(after hypertension) and is currently responsible
for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.
The
World Health Assembly created World No Tobacco
Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the
tobacco epidemic and its lethal effects. It
provides an opportunity to highlight specific
tobacco control messages and to promote adherence
to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control. Tobacco use is the number one preventable
epidemic that the health community faces.
World
No Tobacco Day 2011
Theme: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control
The World Health Organization (WHO) selects
"The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control" as the theme of the next World
No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Tuesday,
31 May 2011.
The
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
(WHO FCTC) is the world's foremost tobacco
control instrument. The first treaty ever
negotiated under the auspices of WHO, it represents
a signal achievement in the advancement of
public health. In force only since 2005, it
is already one of the most rapidly and widely
embraced treaties in the history of the United
Nations, with more than 170 Parties. An evidence-based
treaty, it reaffirms the right of all people
to the highest standard of health and provides
new legal dimensions for cooperation in tobacco
control.
World
No Tobacco Day 2011 will be designed to highlight
the treaty's overall importance, to stress
Parties' obligations under the treaty and
to promote the essential role of the Conference
of the Parties and WHO in supporting countries'
efforts to meet those obligations. The Conference
of the Parties is the treaty's central organ
and governing body.
The
world needs the WHO FCTC as much as, if not
more than, it did in 1996 when the World Health
Assembly adopted a resolution calling for
an international framework convention on tobacco
control. Tobacco use is the leading preventable
cause of death. This year, more than 5 million
people will die from a tobacco-related heart
attack, stroke, cancer, lung ailment or other
disease. That does not include the more than
600,000 people – more than a quarter of them
children – who will die from exposure to second-hand
smoke. The annual death toll from the global
epidemic of tobacco use could rise to 8 million
by 2030. Having killed 100 million people
during the 20th century, tobacco use could
kill 1 billion during the 21st century.
As
with any other treaty, the WHO FCTC confers
legal obligations on its Parties – that is,
on the countries (and the European Union)
that have formally acceded to it.
Among
these obligations are those to:
Protect
public health policies from commercial and
other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Adopt price and tax measures to reduce the
demand for tobacco.
Protect people from exposure to tobacco smoke.
Regulate the contents of tobacco products.
Regulate tobacco product disclosures.
Regulate the packaging and labeling of tobacco
products.
Warn people about the dangers of tobacco.
Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Offer people help to end their addiction to
tobacco.
Control the illicit trade in tobacco products.
Ban sales to and by minors.
Support economically viable alternative to
tobacco growing.
The
treaty also recognizes the importance of international
cooperation and of helping low- and middle-income
countries to meet their treaty obligations.
The
campaign will focus on the following key message:
that countries must fully implement the treaty
to protect present and future generations
from the devastating health, social, environmental
and economic consequences of tobacco consumption
and exposure to tobacco smoke.
Other
key messages will include:
The
treaty embodies the desire and commitment
of scores of governments and millions of people
to have a tobacco-free world.
The Parties to the treaty should fulfil their
obligation to fully implement it.
Individuals should encourage and help their
governments to fulfil that obligation.
The treaty should be duly appreciated by institutions
and individuals alike as a landmark in the
history of public health and the world's foremost
tobacco control instrument.
WHO and the Conference of the Parties stand
ready to help countries meet their obligations
under the treaty and its related guidelines.
The treaty has already proved its efficacy
in the fight against tobacco.
Nevertheless,
as the Secretariat of the treaty explained
in its recent Reports of the Parties and global
progress in implementation of the Convention:
key findings, "Implementation rates continue
to vary substantially between different policy
measures."
More
must be done for the treaty to reach its full
potential, as the Parties themselves recognize.
At their recent meeting in Punta del Este,
Uruguay, they urged all countries to ratify
the treaty, to fully implement its provisions
and to adopt its guidelines. Furthermore,
they reaffirmed their commitment to prioritize
the implementation of health measures designed
to control tobacco consumption.
On
World No Tobacco Day 2011, and throughout
the following year, WHO will urge countries
to put the treaty at the heart of their efforts
to control the global epidemic of tobacco
use.
By
heeding WHO's call, countries will enhance
their ability to significantly reduce the
toll of tobacco-related diseases and deaths
in line with their treaty obligations
Events
May 31
1279
BC – Rameses II (The Great) (19th dynasty)
becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
455 – Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned
to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome.
526 – A devastating earthquake strikes Antioch,
Turkey, killing 250,000.
1223 – Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle
of the Kalka River – Mongol armies of Genghis
Khan led by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus and
Cumans.
1578 – Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich,
England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually
to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets
in London.
1578 – King Henry III lays the first stone
of the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest
bridge of Paris.
1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys
records the last event in his diary.
1678 – The Godiva procession through Coventry
begins.
1775 – American Revolution: The Mecklenburg
Resolutions are allegedly adopted in the Province
of North Carolina.
1790 – Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the
Strait of Juan de Fuca.
1790 – The United States enacts its first
copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.
1790 – French Revolution: the Revolutionary
Tribunal is suppressed.
1805 – French and Spanish forces begin the
assault against British forces occupying Diamond
Rock
1813 – In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and
Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively
marking the end of a route across the Blue
Mountains.
1854 – The civil death procedure is abolished
in France.
1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament,
which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.
1862 – American Civil War Peninsula Campaign:
Battle of Seven Pines or (Battle of Fair Oaks)
– Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston
& G. W. Smith engage Union forces under
George B. McClellan outside Richmond, Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War Overland Campaign:
Battle of Cold Harbor – The Army of Northern
Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army
of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant &
George G. Meade.
1866 – In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John
O'Neill leads 850 Fenian raiders across the
Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie,
Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland
from the United Kingdom. Canadian militia
and British regulars repulse the invaders
in over the next three days, at a cost of
9 dead and 38 wounded to the Fenian's 19 dead
and about 17 wounded.
1884 – Arrival at Plymouth of Tawhiao, King
of Maoris, to claim protection of Queen Victoria
1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people
die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter)
wall of water over the town of Johnstown,
Pennsylvania.
1902 – Second Boer War: The Treaty of Vereeniging
ends the war and ensures British control of
South Africa.
1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner
to the NAACP, convenes for the first time.
1910 – Creation of the Union of South Africa.
1911 – The hull of the ocean liner RMS Titanic
is launched.
1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz flees
the country during the Mexican Revolution.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Jutland – The
British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir
John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage
the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of
Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in
the largest naval battle of the war, which
proves indecisive.
1921 – Tulsa Race Riot: A civil unrest in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, the official
death toll is 39, but recent investigations
suggest the actual toll may be much higher.
1924 – The Soviet Union signs an agreement
with the Peking government, referring to Outer
Mongolia as an "integral part of the
Republic of China", whose "sovereignty"
therein the Soviet Union promises to respect.
1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the
assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003
vehicles.
1929 – The first talking cartoon of Mickey
Mouse, "The Karnival Kid", is released.
1935 – A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroys Quetta
in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead.
1941 – A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, Ireland,
claims 38 lives.
1941 – Anglo-Iraqi War: The United Kingdom
completes the re-occupation of Iraq and returns
'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal
II.
1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy
midget submarines begin a series of attacks
on Sydney, Australia.
1961 – The Union of South Africa becomes the
Republic of South Africa.
1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko
show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev
Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet
society.
1962 – The West Indies Federation dissolves.
1962 – Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.
1970 – The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide
that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more
than 47,000 people are killed.
1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday
Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in
1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on
the last Monday in May for the first time,
rather than on the traditional Memorial Day
of May 30.
1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut
off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge
targets within Cambodia, hastening the end
of the Cambodian Civil War.
1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System completed.
1981 – Burning of Jaffna library, Sri Lanka,
It is one of the violent examples of ethnic
biblioclasm of the twentieth century.
1985 – 1985 United States-Canadian tornado
outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
1991 – Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a
transition to multi-party democracy under
the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM
II mission.
2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt
was Deep Throat.
2009 – Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder
shoots and kills physician George Tiller during
church services in Wichita, Kansas.
2010 – In international waters, armed Shayetet
13 commandos, intending to force the flotilla
to anchor at the Ashdod port, boarded ships
trying to break the ongoing blockade of the
Gaza Strip, resulting in 9 civilian deaths
when teams of IHH activists on the MV Mavi
Marmara attacked them with knives and metal
rods and abducted one of the soldiers.
Holidays
and observances
Anniversary
of Royal Brunei Malay Regiment (Brunei)
Castile–La Mancha Day (Castile–La Mancha)
Christian Feast Day:
Petronella
Hermias
May 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Visitation of Mary (Western Christianity)
World No Tobacco Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
|