World No Tobacco Day
World No Tobacco Day takes place Monday 31st May 2027. The theme will be "Mental well-being – protecting young minds from tobacco and nicotine".
In 2026 we asked young people to share their experience of addictive, health harming products, and speak out about that tactics used by Big Tobacco and associated businesses to put them to an end.
The 2026 theme was 'Unmasking the appeal – countering nicotine and tobacco addiction'
The UK is committed to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3 which should eliminate attempts by the tobacco industry and its associates to influence elected representatives and government officials in the development of progressive health policies.
The theme is 'Protecting children from tobacco industry interference'
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What can I do?
We encouraged young people to use their voices collectively to express how they feel about being targeted by the tobacco and nicotine industries and what they thought should be done to prevent attempts to influence them into using addictive, health harming products.
We wanted young people from Scotland, from youth groups or as a school project, to share their thoughts on smoking and nicotine products. We're encouraged them to get creative, and use their voice to share their concerns. Whether they wanted to film a video, write a song, send a letter to their MSP or design a poster to express how they feel.
Some questions we asked young people to help get the conversation flowing include.
- Do you get to choose what vapes advertising you see? (signs in shops, posters of products etc)
- Do you think young people who vape would have any interest in continuing, if they didn’t have any flavours?
- Do you ever see vapes promoted by influencers on social media?
#TobaccoExposed
Looking for other ways to get involved? Take a look at our Tobacco free school and youth packs! We've got activities around tobacco and nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches. Get young people involved in the discussion and teach them about the harms caused by these products and the industry creating them to be attractive to youth.
Young people's views of vape advertising in Scotland
We spoke with some of the Child Human Rights Defenders from the Children's Parliament who investigated vaping in their community. The children and young people explored the issue of vaping by researching and reporting themes from under 14 year olds and what they felt needed to be done.
The work included evidence gathering from peers, contributing to a consultation sharing their findings and working with artists to create and exhibit artwork to express their calls to action.
Read the report from the Children's Parliament to see the evidence and hear about what children want in order to grow up happy and healthy in Scotland.
Dr Marissa Smith from the University of Glasgow carried out a research project involving 11-16-year-olds in Scotland's central belt that explored their experiences and opinions on vapes advertising. We spoke to her about her work, what the young people shared and what needs to be done to protect them from becoming addicted to health harming products.
Sugarcoat was a project ran with young people from Youth Space Fife. One of the videos they produced called "What are you going to do about it!" explores youth vaping through expert interviews and public opinions.
Watch the interview with Marissa, the video co-produced with the young people, and the Youth Space Fife video below.