UN urged to liken smoking to mass violation of right to health

NEW YORK, October 3 (Itar-Tass) -- The New York-based public society
"Civil Initiative -- Cancer Patients" urged the U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the U.N. Security Council to liken the global tobacco
epidemic to a mass violation of the fundamental right to health.
The appeal was signed by representatives of many countries, including
students and faculty members of the Russian Academy of Advocacy and
Notariat, the society's founder, Dr. Yuri Khalinsky said.
The "global tobacco epidemic" has affected all five continents and
over 180 countries across the world, while the number of smokers has
exceeded 1.3 billion.
The consumption of tobacco leads to various forms of cancer.
Seventy-one percent of all trachea, bronchi and lung cancer cases are
caused by smoking. In 2005, 5.4 million people died in the world from
smoking. Up to 42 percent of deaths from the chronic lung disease could
have been prevented if people did not smoke.
The number of diseases caused by smoking will reach 10 percent by
2015, and smoking will kill more people than AIDS.