Global charities and health campaigners are calling on smokers to quit their deadly cigarette habit on World No Tobacco Day.

Cancer Research UK has released new analysis which estimates one person dies every five minutes from tobacco in Britain and has called on the government to do more to help smokers quit.

It has launched a petition to coincide with World No Tobacco Day today, asking for the Prime Minister to establish a “Smokefree Fund ” which would help pay for the cost of tobacco control, which it says is seriously underfunded.

Meanwhile, a group of leading tobacco harm reduction groups including World Vapers’ Alliance have been highlighting vaping’s role in cutting death and disease from smoking with the launch of World Vape Day yesterday (May 30th).

Now in its fourth year, the event saw the worldwide vaping community champion global harm reduction efforts and the benefits of using e-cigarettes – which Public Health England deems to be 95 per cent safer than tobacco – as an effective way of switching away from cigarettes.

And on World No Tobacco Day they – along with members of the European Parliament and consumer activists – are pushing for a more open approach towards harm reduction in the EU, with a focus not on fighting vaping but looking at how becoming a smoke-free country can be achieved – such as Sweden, which is about to celebrate that status this year.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said today:

“World No Tobacco Day is a sad reminder that a new approach in the fight against smoking is needed”.

“Instead of fighting less harmful alternatives like vaping, the EU and WHO must start accepting reality: harm reduction works! Sweden is becoming the first smoke-free country this year due to a consumer-friendly harm reduction approach. It is high time to learn from the Swedish experience and thereby save millions of lives. With a smart harm reduction approach, we can reach a smoke-free Europe way sooner than the target."

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