U.N. Health Agency Blames Smoking for European Death Toll
Smoking causes the premature death of more than 1 million people each year in Europe, the World Health Organization warns.
Nonetheless, the campaign against tobacco is struggling against a multibillion-dollar effort to promote smoking by the tobacco industry, spokesman Robert Masironi said Friday.
Masironi, coordinator of the U.N. specialized agency’s Smoking and Health Program, spoke at the end of a three-day meeting here of regional advisers that was aimed at forging a common anti-smoking campaign. He said that tobacco, whether smoked, chewed or sniffed, has now been irrefutably linked to a number of respiratory diseases and to various forms of cancer.
Tobacco companies now face a growing awareness in the industrial nations of the dangers of tobacco, Masironi said. He accused the firms of turning to the Third World to dump cigarettes.
The spokesman noted that the tobacco industry wages a $2-billion campaign around the world to promote tobacco, particularly cigarettes.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
