Saying that voluntary controls by the tobacco industry have been a failure, the World Health Organization is calling on countries around the world to enact tough legal restrictions on tobacco advertising.
"We have seen no evidence that tobacco companies are capable of self-regulation," said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland.
WHO said that tobacco companies are engaged in a massive global public relations effort to persuade governments against negotiating strong controls over the promotion and advertising of tobacco products.
"We know what works and what doesn't," said Joy de Bayer, tobacco control coordinator at the World Bank. A World Bank–WHO study found that interventions like comprehensive advertisement bans and price increases have a measurable and sustained impact on decreased tobacco use, Bayer noted.
An estimated 4.2 million people died of tobacco-related causes in 2000, according to WHO.
