Reach Out, Don't Shun: What World No Tobacco Day Used to Mean
Derek Yach
The first World No-Smoking Day fell on 7 April 1988, timed to the WHO’s 40th anniversary. South Africa wasn’t a WHO member then—apartheid had seen to that. Yet we marked the moment anyway, launching a special edition of the South African Medical Journal on smoking in South Africa. It was our way of saying: the science doesn’t recognize political quarantine, and neither should the smokers who needed help.
From that first day through the decade I spent working on these campaigns at WHO, one purpose stood above all others: reach out to people who smoke, help them quit, and rally the family and friends who could support them. We believed compassion, care, and practical help mattered. Stigmatizing and shunning smokers was never acceptable—it still isn’t.
And it worked. Millions quit. Quit-and-win prizes drew entrants by the thousand. Australia ran fun runs; Ireland packed community halls; India staged street theatre; cities worldwide earned old-fashioned, wall-to-wall media coverage that put cessation on every front page. The day had energy because it was for smokers, not against them.
This year, WHO has turned its back on those same people. There is no outreach to the smoker, no hand extended to the user of gutkha or pan masala. Worse, there’s silence on what the science now shows: that vapes are today the most effective quitting aid; that nicotine pouches can displace lethal smokeless products; that heated tobacco helped halve cigarette sales in Japan between 2011 and 2023. Ending tobacco use remains the single most powerful way to prevent chronic disease—and we now have more tools than ever to get there.
Instead, the world’s premier health agency is spending the day demonizing tobacco companies, many of which are actively walking away from cigarettes. That won’t help a single smoker quit. It will only sow confusion about safer alternatives—and confusion keeps people smoking.
So let readers do what WHO won’t. This World No Tobacco Day, reach out to the people you love who smoke. Offer empathy. Offer science-based advice. Offer a hand.
Well said. It is very hard to see the WHO turn its back on science, on public health ethics, and on the people at greatest risk of disease and premature death. I have many positive memories of working with you and others at WHO over the years. To see WHO now promoting policies that perpetuate rather than reduce cigarette use and remove rather than promote better smoking cessation options is heartbreaking for me. I am sure it is even more painful to you and other former WHO officials.