A rapid glance at any statistics concerning tobacco-related illness should suffice to convince most right-thinking people that smoking is a habit to be avoided: one person in the world dies every 6.5 seconds from these illnesses (4.9 million people per year) ? and many more of course fall ill and suffer for years from disease or disability connected with smoking. The fact remains however that people still smoke. A lot of people? 1.3 billion of them, to be exact, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), (31 May 2004, World No Tobacco Day). And the figure is expected to rise sharply in the next twenty years. Again according to the WHO it is less educated people with low income levels who tend to smoke most, both in developing and developed countries, and it is also true that 84% of smokers now live in the developing world. So smoking is, above all, a ?disease? of the poor, which exacerbates their poverty.

Banning the sale of tobacco outright would evidently not be an effective solution. It would immediately lead to a black-market, with all the problems we associate with the illegal sale of drugs. Supposedly enlightened people would also invoke their ?right? to smoke ? such people are generally less concerned with non-smokers right to clean, non-polluted air?

Anti-smoking campaigns and health warnings on packets do not seem to be very effective deterrents. What then should governments do to break into this vicious circle of smoking and poverty and disease? Banning smoking in all public places would be a good start. In Mauritius it is banned in public transport, and in many shops and public buildings, but it is still quite legal to smoke in the street, and in cafés, restaurants and clubs. Will Mauritius ever follow the example of New York with its smoke-free bars?

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has 118 signatories so far. When the treaty comes into force in the near future, these countries will be legally bound to abide by international standards on tobacco price and tax increases, advertising and sponsorship and labelling (including health warnings). They will also have to control illicit trade and the problem of ?second-hand smoke? ? that is, the protection of non-smokers? rights. The success of this treaty shows that governments all over the world are taking this health-threat very seriously.

The FCTC also sets out to ?demystify? the economic benefits of tobacco-production by demonstrating that as a crop it has a negative effect on the environment (highly toxic products are used) as well as on many societies concerned (child-labour is common and labour conditions are typically precarious). So much for the argument that tobacco-growing contributes to the economic and social well-being of countries?

It is true that governments benefit enormously in financial terms from taxes on cigarettes ? but it is also true that treating patients suffering from smoking-related diseases often accounts for a large chunk of the total health-care budget (6-15% in the richer countries).

Tobacco companies whose profits are decreasing in the developed countries where more and more people are turning against smoking should somehow be prevented from targeting the huge but relatively impoverished markets of the Third World instead.

Mauritius signed the FCTC in 2003 and ratified it in 2004. We look forward to action.