40% nations now have complete ban on smoking in indoor public places: WHO

Geneva (Switzerland), August 1: 5.6 billion people, 71 per cent of the world’s population, are now protected with at least one best practice policy to help save lives from deadly tobacco, five times more than in 2007, suggests a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

This WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic focuses on protecting the public from second-hand smoke, stressing that nearly 40% of nations now have smoke-free indoor public areas. The report stated that there is still considerable work to be done, noting that 44 countries are currently unprotected by any of WHO's MPOWER initiatives, while 53 countries do not have total smoking prohibitions in healthcare institutions. Meanwhile, just around half of the world's private businesses and restaurants are smoke-free.

“Around 1.3 million people die from second-hand smoke every year. All of these deaths are entirely preventable. People exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke are at risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, respiratory diseases, type 2 diabetes and cancers,” the report added.

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