May 31 is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day every year at the call of the World Health Organization.[break]
According to Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NCRS), five million people die of tobacco every year and the number is expected to reach 10 million by 2020.
The WHO says tobacco is the cause of 25 types of diseases that human beings suffer from. In Nepal, 9,000 men and 6,000 women suffer from cancer due to smoking and between 80,000 to 100,000 are found smoking every day in the country, says NCRS.
A function was organized on Tuesday in the Capital by NCRS to mark the day. Inaugurating the program, Speaker Subash Chandra Nembang expressed solidarity with efforts of school children to control the increasing use of tobacco, which is concerned with building new Nepal.
He said the campaign against smoking will succeed if students encourage their family members to quit smoking and tobacco.
The government, he said, will bring in an Act to control tobacco within two months and expressed hope that the law will make the country tobacco-free.
Former Chairman of NCRS Ajani Kumar Shrestha, Chairman of Mirgendra Medicine Guthi Mirgendra Raj Pandey and Chairman of NCRS Diwakar Raj Rajkarnikar stressed for urgent need to control tobacco.
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