The ceremony has the theme of turning a hookah [water pipe] into a vase. Experts believe that every time a person uses hookah, it means he/she has smoked the equivalent of five to ten packets of cigarettes.
World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31. It is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe.
The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to nearly 6 million deaths each year worldwide, 600,000 of which are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day in 1987.
See Tasnim’s cartoon on the occasion here.
