UN / SMOKE-FREE LAWS

The latest report on the global tobacco epidemic by the WHO says that only 5.4 percent of the world's population was covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2008, up from 3.1 percent in 2007. WHO / FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:42
• Production Date: 8 December 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO; INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY - IAEA
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL AFFAIRS; LAW; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; HEALTH; DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL
• MAMS Id: U091208f

Description

STORY: UN / SMOKE-FREE LAWS
TRT:1.42
SOURCE: WHO / IAEA / UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: EMBARGOED UNTIL 9 DECEMBER 0900 GMT
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 8 DECEMBER 2009, GENEVA / FILE

Shotlist

RECENT

Wide shot, exterior, Palais de Nations

8 DECEMBER 2009, GENEVA

SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, Director, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO:
“We have had a 74 percent increase in the number of people around the world that are covered by 100 percent smoke free policies like you see in Ireland, in Turkey, in Uruguay were all bars, restaurants and public places and workplaces are 100% smoke free, so that's a real achievement. But on the downside, that still leaves around 95 percent of the world's population that are not yet covered with those effective policies.”

FILE - WHO – DATE UNKNOWN , FRANCE

15. Various shots, adults smoking at a cafe
16. Various shots, adult buying cigarettes in a bar

FILE – UNTV - 15-24 SEPTEMBER 2008, MONTEVIDEO , URUGUAY

5. Various shots, public spaces
6. Various shots, people smoking
4. Various shots, Café-bar

FILE – IAEA - 2008, BEIJING , CHINA

12. Wide shot, pedestrians walking down a street
13. Med shot, smoker on street

SOUNDBITE (English) Douglas Bettcher, Director, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO:
"Since the last launch of our global report in February 2008 we have seen a lot of good news coming through the pipeline. We have seen more countries becoming parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, we almost have 170 countries now, that are fully obligated themselves under this international law.”

FILE – UNTV - 22 JULY 2009

3. Various shots, people smoking at the UN Viennese Cafe

Storyline

The latest report on the global tobacco epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) says that only 5.4 percent of the world's population was covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2008, up from 3.1 percent in 2007.

This means that 154 million more people are no longer exposed to the harms of tobacco smoke in work places, restaurants, bars and other indoor public places.

Seven countries: Colombia , Djibouti , Guatemala , Mauritius , Panama , Turkey and Zambia implemented comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2008, bringing the total to seventeen.

WHO chose to make smoke-free environments the focus of the report because of the harm of second-hand smoke, which causes about 600,000 premature deaths per year, countless crippling and disfiguring illnesses and economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars per year.

The report tracks the global tobacco epidemic, giving governments and other stakeholders a tool to see where evidence-based demand reduction interventions have been implemented and where more progress is needed.

It gives country-by-country tobacco use prevalence figures as well as data about cigarette taxation, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, support for treatment of tobacco dependence, enforcement of tobacco-free laws and monitoring of the epidemic.

Tobacco use continues to be the leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 5 million people per year. The report says that unless urgent action is taken to control the tobacco epidemic, the annual death toll could rise to eight million by 2030. More than eighty percent of those premature deaths would occur in low- and middle-income countries – in other words, precisely where it is hardest to deflect and to bear such tremendous losses.