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EDITORIAL COMMENT * The Fag End  

According to a report by the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) the disease is now poised to become the leading cause of death worldwide by 2010, overtaking cardiovascular ailments as the number one killer. . . .

The United States, on the other hand, has made a turnaround and is now showing a decline in both disease incidence and death for the first time in a decade.

Again, the reason is not far to see. In the 1980s and 1990s when the US and other western countries came down heavily on smoking, tobacco giants began making major moves towards developing countries. As a result smoking fired up as, subsequently, did lung cancer. It's high time, therefore, that countries like India too initiated aggressive anti-smoking measures. Specifically, we need to urgently commit to a comprehensive tobacco control approach including increased taxes and access to cessation tools and programmes.

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