FOUR in ten countries still allow smoking in hospitals and schools, a report from the World Health Organisation revealed yesterday.
It warned anti-tobacco efforts aimed at avoiding tens of millions of preventable deaths had been slow to take hold.
In its first comprehensive analysis of global tobacco use and control efforts, the United Nations health organisation found only 5
per cent of the world's population lived in countries that protected their people through any of the smoking reduction measures it has outlined.
The WHO has put forward six anti-tobacco strategies that Dr Margaret Chan, its director-general, said were "within the reach of every country, rich or poor."
These are to monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from smoke; offer help to quit; warn about the dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raise taxes.
"Virtually every country needs to do more," she said.
The report found governments around the world collect 500 times more a year in tobacco taxes than they spend on anti-tobacco efforts.
It also highlighted the shift in the smoking epidemic to the developing world, due to what it said was a global tobacco industry strategy to target people in those countries.
As a result, the WHO said 80 per cent of the more than eight million tobacco-related deaths a year projected by 2030 are expected to occur in the developing world.
The full article contains 244 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
