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Anti-smoker campaigners find a cause for celebration

As anti-smoking campaigners celebrate a string of recent successes in developed countries, the tobacco industry is increasingly looking for new markets in Eastern Europe and the developing nations of the world.

But there was a mood of resolute determination at the recent World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Beijing. ‘When, on a global basis, nearly 10,000 people a day are dying from tobacco use, good intentions are no longer enough,’ said Dr Hiroshi Nakajima, director-general of the World Health Organisation. ‘That is why our member states have asked WHO to move beyond good intentions and to develop an international framework convention for tobacco control.’

Clive Bates, director of the British anti-tobacco campaign ASH, said: ‘Joint action worldwide is essential if we are to reduce the horrendous toll of tobacco-induced death and disease which is now as common in many developing countries as in the West.’