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WHO ramps up battle against global tobacco use
02/12/2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7290420
NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Global anti-tobacco efforts aimed at avoiding tens of millions of preventable deaths have been slow to take hold, and no country has fully adopted the World Health Organization's recommendations, WHO said on Thursday.
In its first comprehensive analysis of global tobacco use and control efforts, the health organization of the United Nations found that only 5 percent of the world's population live in countries that protect their people through any of the smoking reduction measures it has outlined.
In addition, the WHO analysis found that 40 percent of countries still allow smoking in hospitals and schools, while just 5 percent of the world's population lives in countries with comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising and promotion.
"While efforts to combat tobacco are gaining momentum, virtually every country needs to do more," Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, said in a statement.
WHO outlined six anti-tobacco strategies that Chan said "are within the reach of every country, rich or poor and, when combined as a package, offer us the best chance of reversing this growing epidemic."
The six strategies are to monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke; offer help to quit tobacco use; warn about the dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; raise taxes on tobacco.
The report found that governments around the world collect 500 times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on anti-tobacco efforts. It said significantly increased tobacco taxes would provide sustainable funding to implement and enforce the anti-tobacco recommendations.
Chan unveiled the WHO Report of the Global Tobacco Epidemic at a news conference with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose Bloomberg Philanthropies helped fund the report.
The report found particularly troubling the smoking epidemic's shift to the developing world due to what it said was a global tobacco industry strategy to target young people and adults in those countries. The targeting of young women in particular was highlighted as one of the "most ominous potential developments of the epidemic's growth."
As a result, WHO said some 80 percent of the more than eight million annual tobacco-related deaths projected by 2030 are expected to occur in the developing world. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot, editing by Vicki Allen)
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