Smoking: Quit to win.

Abstract

The Winners of ‘Quit to Win’ Smoke-free Community Campaign organized by the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health. Translation of banner text: ‘13th Quit to Win Smoke-free Community Campaign Prize Presentation Ceremony’. (Image source: Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health, with permission). In 2019, there were 1.14 billion current smokers globally, and they consumed 7.41 trillion cigarette-equivalents of tobacco (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673621011697). Smoking rates are high in some parts of Asia. China, India and Indonesia comprised 46% of the world's smokers in 2020 (https://www.statista.com/chart/24965/share-of-smokers-and-world-population-by-country/). Since early 1960, the detrimental impact of smoking on physical health and well-being has been reported worldwide. Smoking can damage nearly every human organ and lead to various diseases and disabilities, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Smoking is harmful not only to the human body, but also the society and the economy. In 2012, the cost of diseases caused by smoking equated to 5.7% of global health expenditure and 1.8% of global gross domestic product (GPD; https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/27/1/58.long). Globally, 7.69 million deaths and 200 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) were related to smoking tobacco in 2019 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673621011697). The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) opened for signature in 2003, and this treaty has been signed by 182 countries, covering more than 90% of the world population, making it one of the most widely embraced treaties in the United Nations' history. Various strategies have been advocated for tobacco control, and examples are price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco and non-price measures, such as packaging and labelling of tobacco products; education, communication, training and public awareness; policies on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Comprehensive tobacco control policies effectively reduce smoking prevalence, and the positive effects are amplified when multiple measures are implemented simultaneously at the same place (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-01210-8). With the substantial effort on tobacco control, from 1990 to 2019, there was a decline in the smoking-attributable mortality for both males and females in some countries such as China, Japan, the UK and the US (https://www.ssph-journal.org/articles/10.3389/ijph.2022.1605147/full). The effort to curtail the tobacco epidemic should be continued. At the regional level, the Asia Pacific Society of Respirology has recently added a new section on ‘Tobacco Control’ under the Environmental & Occupational Health and Epidemiology Assembly. It is anticipated that this can help to drive concerted efforts in the region on tobacco control. In my local community in Hong Kong, there is a recent 31% tax hike in tobacco smoking sales. It is gratifying to see the local effort for education and encouragement of smoking cessation. When attending the local campaign on tobacco control, I was touched by the stories shared by the quitters as their behavioural change positively impacts their community, family and personal life. None declared.