Dear members

The World Health Organization (WHO) statistics are harsh and unambiguous:  approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco and this accounts for one in 10 adult deaths. Tobacco continues to kill nearly 6 million people each year, including more than 600,000 non-smokers who die from exposure to tobacco smoke.

No Tobacco Day, 31 May, serves as a timely reminder of the choice that each individual has: to continue the habit, endangering your own life and the lives of those closest to you. Or to stop, right now! That is the theme this year: ‘Free yourself’, perhaps the most effective slogan in recent times

No tobacco Day is also a reminder that tobacco control is, and has for many years been, a key area of FDI work. In 2009, FDI issued a Policy Statement ‘Code of practice on tobacco control for oral health organisations'. It has also issued a Fact Sheet as well as information on the serious oral health risks of tobacco use and the counselling role of the dental team, and an ‘Advocacy Guide for Oral Health Professionals’. Furthermore, each year’s FDI Annual World Dental Congress provides a major forum for discussion and debate of anti-tobacco initiatives within the context of oral health.

I would like to salute the efforts of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) which requires the now 176 signatory Parties to regularly collect national data on the magnitude, patterns, determinants and consequences of tobacco use and exposure. The latest global progress report (2102) provides readers with the latest news on FCTC implementation around the world.

In addition, the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, through surveillance and monitoring, seeks to improve the availability of data on tobacco use, exposure and related health outcomes. It also organizes No Tobacco Day 31 May, this year with its important call to governments and all tobacco users to ‘Free yourself’.

With best personal regards,

Orlando Monteiro da Silva