In celebration of the 2004 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean will be holding a press conference at its premises, in Cairo, on 2 June 2004 to launch the theme: Tobacco and poverty. This WNTD highlights how tobacco consumption impoverishes individuals, households and countries, diverting resources away from basic necessities and causing disease and premature death thus creating a vicious circle.