Summary

Original source:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-27-voa6.cfm

Details

• The world's first treaty aimed at cutting tobacco-related deaths has come into force.
• The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control becomes legally binding upon countries that have ratified the landmark agreement.
• The World Health Organization says it believes the Tobacco Convention, the world's first international public health treaty, could save millions of lives.
• The WHO says tobacco is the second leading cause of preventable deaths globally after hypertension.
• The WHO estimates that nearly five million people die prematurely every year from tobacco-related diseases.
• If current smoking trends are not reversed, the WHO warns by 2020, tobacco will kill 10 million people a year, 70 percent of them in developing countries.
• The coordinator of the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Douglas Bettcher, says the treaty is a tool that, if properly implemented, can curb the global tobacco epidemic.
• "It is an historical moment and we are very confident that this treaty is going to save lives," said Douglas Bettcher.
• "It has already started off a powerful process globally and we are very confident that it is going to continue to do so and it is going to prove itself as a very effective public health tool to really curb this unacceptable burden of disease and death."
• The treaty sets standards and guidelines for tobacco advertising, pricing and smuggling.
• It also aims to limit non-smokers' exposure to other people's smoke.
• The director of the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva says treaty provisions aim to dissuade children from smoking and helping adults to kick the habit.
• "The ban of advertising so as not to promote smoking propaganda, publicity, sponsorship and promotion," said Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva.
• One of the most important measures that I can describe is the measure that addresses smuggling, which is a big cause of increasing availability of cigarettes with small prices and cigarettes of totally unknown origin."

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