WHO urges complete ban on tobacco marketing

Only 24 countries, representing 10% of the world’s population, have introduced a complete ban on the promotion, advertising, and sponsorship of tobacco and tobacco related products, a report into worldwide trends on tobacco has found.

The World Health Organization’s 2013 report on the global tobacco epidemic found that the most common form of ban adopted by 144 countries was on television and radio advertising.1

Low and middle income countries were more likely than high income countries to have recently implemented a ban on advertising, sponsorship, and promotion, and 99% of people newly covered by such a ban live in low and middle income countries.

Since 2010, seven countries—Bahrain, Brazil, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Turkey, and Vietnam—with about 400 million people, have enacted new …