World No Tobacco Day is celebrated on May 31. Smoking is a disease that has devastating consequences for the health of smokers and those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. It is the leading cause of preventable death from cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and diabetes. It kills almost 6 million people a year, of whom more than 600,000 are non-smokers who die from breathing second-hand smoke.

Despite the current economic crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) wants to put an end to this epidemic by asking countries to increase their tobacco taxes. With its slogan, "More taxes on tobacco, less death and disease", it hits the bull's eye of the Philosophy "Health Promotion" where citizens are active subjects. That is why the WHO encourages citizens to encourage their governments to take this measure to levels that reduce consumption. We must be drivers of political decisions in subject health, ensuring individual and collective health, and promoting healthy living environments.

Increasing taxes, which at first sight may appear to be an antisocial measure, is one of the most effective tobacco control actions. The WHO indicates in its "report on Global Health 2010" that a 50% increase in tobacco excise taxes would generate more than $1.4 billion in additional funds in 22 low-income countries. expense If this money were to be spent on health, the WHO notes that the health budget of these countries could double by as much.

In Spain, the committee Nacional de Prevención del Tabaquismo justifies the tax increase. It states that the health and social costs derived from smoking are "a formidable mortgage" that is not only paid by smokers, but by all Spaniards through taxes. In addition, the increased revenue from this measure could be used to improve health, "including smoking prevention and control policies, and helping smokers who want to quit", actions currently not covered by the National Health System. If we add to this the fact that the increase in the price of tobacco reduces consumption in lower-income population groups and, above all, prevents young people from starting to smoke, we will be protecting present and future generations from the devastating consequences of tobacco.

Logically, the tax increase must be accompanied by other measures to prevent and reduce tobacco consumption among young people. One of these is the creation of healthy educational environments. The project Healthy University of the University of Navarra's Nursing School has been developing initiatives aimed at the entire university community, especially young people, for more than a decade. In 2001, this led to a study that turned the academic center into a "Tobacco Smoke-Free Space", endorsed by the Foral Plan of Action on Tobacco (2001-2005). This recognition made it one of the pioneering universities in our country to carry out such an initiative.

Today, under the slogan "Towards a new horizon", we intend to reach our young university students closer and better, to promote them to quit smoking, to prevent them from starting to use tobacco and to raise their awareness to exercise a transformational leadership in subject health, in order to promote healthier societies every day.