The World Health Organization accused the global tobacco industry on Tuesday of continuing to use deceptive labeling and marketing to attract new smokers, including children, ahead of World No Tobacco Day.
WHO regional director Shigeru Omi said tobacco is deadly "in any form," regardless of how products are described or manufactured. Terms such as light, mild, low tar, natural, organic, or fruit-flavored give no health benefit and mislead consumers into thinking certain products are safer, he said.
Omi urged governments across the Western Pacific, including Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, to enforce the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the binding international treaty on tobacco regulation.
WHO reported that smoking kills roughly 4.9 million people each year, making it the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. If current trends continue, annual tobacco deaths could reach 10 million by 2020, with 70 percent occurring in developing nations.
The agency estimated there are currently 1.3 billion smokers globally, half of whom are expected to die early from tobacco-related illness. That figure could climb to 1.7 billion smokers by 2025 at the present rate of consumption.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2006, in its own words.