WHO urges smoking ban at work

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation called on Tuesday for a global ban on smoking at work and in enclosed public places.

The United Nations agency said a ban would help limit non-smokers' exposure to second-hand smoke, which can kill through heart disease and serious respiratory and cardiovascular illness.

"The evidence is clear, there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in a statement ahead of World No Tobacco Day which will be observed on Thursday for the 18th year.

"Many countries have already taken action. I urge all countries that have not yet done so to take this immediate and important step to protect the health of all," she said.

A number of EU countries, including France, Spain, Ireland and Portugal are among those to have introduced such bans.

The Geneva-based agency said its recommendation was based on three studies on second-hand smoke, two in the United States and one by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

"By July 1, 240 million people worldwide will be protected by smoke-free legislation," said Wayne Kao of the International Union against Cancer, which supports a smoke-free world.

"Unfortunately, that is less than 4 percent of the world population," Kao told a news conference.

In addition to several European countries, New Zealand, Bermuda, Uruguay, and parts of Australia, Canada and the United States have banned smoking in public places, according to Kao.

The WHO said some 200,000 workers die each year due to exposure to tobacco smoke at work, while around 700 million children, around half the world's total, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly in the home.

The agency says that tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. The number of smokers is rising rapidly in developing countries.

"Remove the pollutant -- tobacco smoke -- by implementing 100 percent smoke-free environments. Ventilation and smoking areas do not reduce exposure to a safe level of risk," Armando Peruga, head of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, told reporters.

Member countries of an international treaty against smoking, the 2003 WHO-backed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are due to discuss guidelines on exposure to second-hand smoke at a meeting in Bangkok starting on June 30.