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CNN DIPLOMATIC LICENSE: U.N. Issues Report on Jenin; Law Enforcement Officials Discuss Tobacco Smuggling 

ROTH: Roughly $16 million U.S. a year is the estimate of the smuggle profits. Before I introduce my next guest, I should tell you tobacco manufacturer Phillip Morris declined our request to appear on this program. The other major U.S. tobacco manufacturer, R.J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson and Lorillard Tobacco did not respond to our requests.

Now onto our guest. Joining me now to talk about the issue of tobacco smuggling and other things, Dr. Derek Yach. . .

YACH: Well, I think it was very productive. We saw the world of law enforcement joining hands with public health and realizing that they have additional work to do both on the law enforcement side and public health. They really were able to identify a number of very specific strategies that they could take home to their countries around the world to improve tracking, tracing, and monitoring very practical measures to start looking at how they can reduce the illegal traffic in tobacco, how they can monitor it better and very importantly I think it generated a sense that this is a global problem that requires a global response. . .

YACH: Well, by far the biggest is China, where we have about a million tobacco deaths a year out of 320 million smokers in the country. That's colossal compared to the U.S., which constitutes about 4 percent of world smokers. In India, you have the second largest number of deaths, about 700,000 tobacco deaths. And of course, a large amount of those are not just due to cigarettes, as we know them, but a wide range of other tobacco products that are chewed or sniffed and are available across the market.

ROTH: Very briefly, isn't it very hypocritical for these delegates to be gathered in the U.N. headquarters where everyone is smoking in the hallways despite WHO, World Health Organization, your organization's demand that U.N. buildings be smoke-free and everywhere else.

YACH: I don't think it's hypocritical. I think it's a question of leadership, and we would hope that the leadership of the U.N. in New York would apply the same effective measures that Dr. Brundtland has applied in Geneva and that way I can assure you that you would have no smoking in this building

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