Tobacco.org

• Talks begin on cutting tobacco deaths 

Politically and commercially charged negotiations on an international tobacco control agreement resumed Monday with warnings about the explosion in smoking-related deaths.

"Every single one of those four million people who died last year (of tobacco-related illnesses) could have lived longer -- five years longer, 10 years longer, 20 years longer," World Health Organization director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland told delegates from 190 nations.

"It is these lives and lost years which provide us the answers to those who will speak to you of profits and marketing gains, of special concessions and "reasonable" campaigns. There is nothing reasonable about tobacco deaths," the U.N. health chief said.

She renewed her appeals for the treaty to include advertising and sponsorship bans, anti-smuggling measures, product regulation and better education.

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