UN PRESSES FOR WORLDWIDE CURBS ON TOBACCO

THE World Health Organisation is to attempt the unprecedented step of
banning tobacco advertising - and possibly smoking in public - across the
world.

The United Nations agency plans to introduce the world's first public
health treaty by 2003. It would be legally binding if ratified by member
states and would cover areas such as the harmonisation of taxes on tobacco
and legislation on smuggling, advertising, sponsorship and labelling.
Critics say the idea is unworkable and have branded the WHO a "super nanny".

A senior member of the WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative, which is preparing
the convention, confirmed last week that a ban on smoking in public places
was also being considered. The push for a treaty is being spearheaded by
the WHO director general, Gro Harlem Brundtland, working with the World
Bank and the UN children's fund, Unicef.

Dr Brundtland said last year: "Smoking should not be advertised, subsidised
or glamorised. We are engaging in a broad alliance to drive home this
message, especially to support countries which are not prepared to face the
tide that may be coming."

With multinational tobacco firms now turning their marketing efforts to
poorer nations and to women, the WHO says global action with legal force is
needed to support national efforts to combat smoking. According to WHO
projections, tobacco will kill 10 million people a year by 2020, nearly
three times the current level. The organisation's proposals received
support in Britain yesterday from the Government-funded Health Education
Authority. A spokesman said: "We will support anything that will encourage
people not to smoke. It is the biggest killer in the country."

Clive Bates, director of the pressure group, Action on Smoking and Health,
said the convention would clip the wings of tobacco giants which were
targeting the developing world now that they had been forced to limit
advertising in the West. He said: "The companies are more powerful than
many countries."

Alan Duncan, the Conservative health spokesman, said: "I'm all for reducing
global smoking, but the WHO cannot make global law just like that. It is
nations above all who should make law in a democratic way."

Juliette Wallbridge, of the smokers' rights lobby group, Forest, said: "It
will be a cold day in hell before countries increase taxes to our level. I
sometimes wonder what planet the WHO are living on. The indications in the
UK are that a more sensible approach is being taken to let adults live
their own lives."

Tobacco firms, which are bracing themselves for a fight with the WHO, fear
that the agency wants ultimately to ban tobacco worldwide. Chris Proctor,
of British and American Tobacco, said: "Our concern is we now have a super
nanny that seems to be dictating things to governments around the world
which have been addressing tobacco issues for an awfully long time."

He said the "dictating of rules and regulations through a legal control
mechanism" made little sense, given the different nature of countries, many
of which were heavily dependent on tobacco growing.

Enforcing global treaties can be a long, difficult process. For instance,
the 1997 Kyoto treaty on climate change requires ratification by 55 states
to bring it into force, but so far, fewer than 10 have done so.

However, Dr Chaloka Beyani, a lecturer in international law at the London
School of Economics, said the WHO's move was significant because, in the
past, the organisation had been concerned only with "lofty goals and
aspirations".