Cigarette smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease by itself.  And when it acts with other factors, it greatly increases the risk for heart disease. Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance and increases the tendency for blood to clot. It also increases the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease after bypass surgery. It is the most important risk factor for young men and women and produces a greater relative risk in persons under and over the age of 50. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives greatly increase their risk of coronary heart disease and stroke compared with nonsmoking women who use oral contraceptives. Smoking decreases High Density Lipoprotein or the good cholesterol. And cigarette smoking combined with a family history of heart disease also seems to greatly increase the risk. Smoking has been also linked to stroke. Inhaling cigarette smoke produces several effects that damage the brain or cerebrovascular system. Women who take pills and smoke simultaneously increases the chance of developing stroke. It also creates a higher risk for peripheral arterial disease and aortic aneurysm. Let us also take into view the people who smoke cigars or pipes which also seem to have a higher risk of death from coronary heart disease and possibly stroke, but their risk isn’t as great as that of cigarette smokers. This is probably because they’re less likely to inhale the smoke. Currently there’s very little scientific information on cigar and pipe smoking and cardiovascular disease, especially among young men, who represent the vast majority of cigar users.

Because of these alarming facts and figures and its unwanted effects on the body, the World Health Organization came up with a World No Tobacco Day which is celebrated around the world every year on May 31. This is to promote awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco in any form such as cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, bidis, kreteks, clove cigarettes, cigars and shisha, which is flavored tobacco smoked in a hookah pipe and others. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is the world’s foremost tobacco control instrument. The first treaty ever negotiated under the auspices of WHO, it represents a signal achievement in the advancement of public health. Among these obligations are those to: protect public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, adopt price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco, protect people from exposure to tobacco smoke, regulate the contents of tobacco products, regulate tobacco product disclosures, regulate the packaging and labeling of tobacco products, warn people about the dangers of tobacco, ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, offer people help to end their addictions to tobacco, control the illicit trade in tobacco products, ban sales to and by minors and support economically viable alternative to tobacco growing.

In return, these obligations will help decrease the casualties of smoking. However, despite devastating health effects, millions continue to smoke everyday. Tobacco companies use advertisements to encourage nonsmokers to begin smoking and to discourage smokers from quitting. The Cigarette Smoking Act began restricting tobacco advertising through bans on both television and radio advertisements for cigarettes. Since then, many more restrictions have been put in place; however, cigarette advertisements are abundant through a variety of media. In return, sickness from smoking continues to escalate.