Celebrating World No Tobacco Day 2023

May 31, 2023 is World No Tabacco Day. Tobacco use ranks among the world’s leading causes of death. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 8 million deaths per year are attributed to tobacco use, including more than 1.2 million deaths among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke.

Around the world, over 570,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer, 1.7 million people find themselves living with this condition and it is the 13^th cause of death from cancer globally.

The World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition fully supports the celebration of World No Tobacco Day and puts the emphasis on raising awareness on the harmful effects of tobacco use on health, and specifically on cancer cases and deaths.

More than 7,000 different chemicals are in tobacco and tobacco smoke — more than 70 of them are known to cause cancer.  Smoking is the biggest risk factor of bladder cancer as tobacco contains cancer-causing (carcinogenic) chemicals.

• It is estimated that smoking causes about 50% of all bladder cancers.
• Persons who smoke may be up to 4 times more likely to develop bladder cancer than non-smokers.

Studies have shown a strong association with increased risk of recurrence and disease progression with continued smoking after diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer.

Since tobacco is a leading cause of cancer mortality, a strong implementation of effective tobacco control measures is critical to reducing the global cancer burden.

More information and helpful resources about World No Tobacco Day here.

We invite you to visit our Bladder Cancer information pages to know more about bladder cancer risk factors.