pick from this article
http://www.globalsmokefreepartnership.org/news.php?id=188
Joint
Statement by the
International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and the World Tourism Organization
(WTO) on
GLOBAL SMOKEFREE HOSPITALITY IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Presented
at //// on May 2007
UICC
and WTO are sensitive to the formally expressed wishes of our respective
membership to promote the highest standard of health and protect the right to a healthy environment in Travel and Tourism.
Our organizations
take particular account of the 2003 World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ratified to date by 146 countries (1) (add reference).
More specifically, Article 8 (Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke) obligates Parties to take effective steps to provide protection from exposure to tobacco smoke.
This duty stems from the scientific evidence confirming that exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke leads to premature death and disease, including lung cancer and ischemic heart disease as showed most recently in the 2006 US Surgeon General Report (2),
(2 - IARC and 3 Surgeon General and 4 California ?)
Several EU countries have started enacting and implementing smokefree regulations, the EU Commission is recommanding a general adoption and it looks like more and more Europeans prefer smoke-free hotels. (New York Times, Nov 5 2006)
Other continents have taken similar initiatives: in the United States 17 states and dozens of municipalities have smokefree regulations, (Canada?), XXX complete with as many countries as possible
Those policies have already improved public health. Studies in Ireland, scotland, Norway, the US, demonstrate benefits such as improvements in the respiratory health of hospitality workers (sources?)
It is of particular importance for tourism that there is wide popular support for smokefree regulations because clean air environments are viewed as those most conducive to leisure-time enjoyment (source? from NEJ 2007)
It is to answer consumer demand that several hotel chains have decide to become smokefree in the US and Canada (sources for Westin and Marriott).
1. World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
2. The health consequences of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke: a report of the Surgeon General - executive summary. Rockville, MD: Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.
3. Study Finds That Europeans Prefer Smoke-Free Hotels, The New York Times, November 5, 2006
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