GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The United Nations took the first step to ban smoking around the world Sunday by announcing its tough tobacco control treaty had become effective.
The treaty, drafted by the world body's World Health Organization in Geneva, requires ratifying nations to impose a ban on tobacco advertising.
These nations also would be required to place graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, take measures to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke, and increase the cost of tobacco products, the Washington Post reported.
It took the WHO three years to negotiate the treaty called "The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," which blames tobacco smoking for some 5 million premature deaths every year.
During negotiations, the agency had to fight international tobacco companies. But both sides got some of what they wanted in that the treaty provides an initiative against cigarette smuggling in favor of the tobacco companies, while providing control efforts in support of public health advocates.
The United States has signed the treaty, but the Bush administration is yet to send it to the Senate for ratification, saying the document is undergoing legal review.
