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
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