On 31st May each year WHO celebrates World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce consumption. Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.

In 2008, the theme of World No Tobacco Day was Tobacco-Free Youth. Young people are aggressively targeted by the tobacco industry which spends billions of dollars each year marketing its products. To protect the world's youth from experimenting with tobacco and becoming regular users, the World No Tobacco Day 2008 campaign called for a ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

WHO created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and its lethal effects. Tobacco is the number one preventable epidemic that the health community faces.