New Delhi: World No Tobacco Day is observed across the globe on May 31 every year. It is aimed at encouraging people to abstain from consuming tobacco for 24 hours and raising awareness about the hazardous effects of tobacco consumption on a person’s health and well-being.

This year WHO is advocating making ‘plain packaging’ for tobacco products, which involves removal of branding and promotional information from the products, mandatory.

In ‘plain packaging’, brand and promotional information is removed from tobacco packet and replaced by graphic health warnings, dull colour combinations, a brand name and a product or manufacturer’s name in standardised front.

So as the world witness a no-tobacco day today, here we bring you some facts about the use of tobacco:

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1. About 40 per cent of men worldwide smoke as compared with nearly 9 per cent of women, according to the World Health Organistion (WHO). One person dies every six seconds due to tobacco.

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2. Tobacco use continues to be a major public health issue across South East Asian region including India as it kills on an average around 150 persons every hour.

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3. Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally (after hypertension) and is reportedly responsible for killing one in 10 adults.

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4. One-third of those killed are children who are often exposed to smoke at home, according to the WHO.

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5. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80% of the world’s 1 billion smokers live in low and middle income countries.