World No Tobacco Day 2006

Abstract

There seem to be as many forms of tobacco as there are computer viruses or species of fly, and they seem to multiply and evolve faster than genetically modified plants. There is rolled tobacco – cigarettes, cigars, bidis and kreteks. There is tobacco for pipes. There is tobacco for waterpipes, including hookahs, bhangs, narghiles and shishas. There is flavoured tobacco – sweetened, spiced and herbed. There is chewing tobacco and other kinds of smokeless tobacco, including snuff, snus and gutkha. There is organic tobacco, filtered, so-called ‘‘light and mild’’ or ‘‘natural’’ andmentholated. There is even tobacco that is ‘‘heated’’ rather than ‘‘burned,’’ such as R.J. Reynolds’ Eclipse. The ever-expanding multiplicity of forms underscores the tobacco industry’s determination to grow as lawsuits and education campaigns threaten its high profits. Although the various forms are intended to attract different kinds of consumers, they are similar in one important respect: all are dangerous and addictive to humans and all can cause disease and death, the industry’s deceptive insinuations of relative safety notwithstanding. The essentially harmful nature of all tobacco products, regardless of how they are advertised, packaged and processed, is the central message of a new report by the World Health Organization,