Smoke-Free Places Accepted by Asian States
Tobacco for long had been causing concern to health professionals. However, soon the era of tobacco would come to an end as about 10 Asian states have expressed their desire to curb the ill practice of smoking from their nations by 2015. The states spoke openly during the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH). The Secretary-General of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Surin Pitsuwan said, “Free trade is a key goal of Asean, but we believe it is not enough to focus only on free trade and fair trade. Safe trade should also be a primary consideration”.
The Asean’s aim is to curb the ill practice of smoking from the world. At present, the main focus of Asean is Jakarta. It has been informed that in the region, there are 125 million people who smoke out of the total 600 million of population.
Meanwhile, it has come to light that Australia is all set to go ahead with its plan of introducing plain packaging in the country. The World Health Organisation is also supporting Australia in its battle against the industries. The Head of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan said that the tobacco industries are clueless about the consequences of smoking on smokers.
Margaret Chan said that if Australia succeeds in its plain packaging proposal, then many countries caught in the grip of smoking would be encouraged to follow the footsteps of it. When Australia for the first time spoke in favor of plain packaging, then a large number of tobacco industries expressed their distress towards the government.
The tobacco companies are not in favor of the proposal but the Australian Government is all set to go ahead with it. Australia is eyeing the World Conference on Tobacco or Health for help in going ahead with its plain packaging plan.