BRITAIN: Cigarette-smoking should be banned outright, one of the world's leading medical journals, The Lancet, said yesterday.
An editorial in the UK-based journal pointed out that 80 per cent of Britons were non-smokers. These people had "the right to freedom from exposure to proven carcinogens," said the journal.
An estimated 1,000 people a year in Britain died from inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke, the editorial claimed. It said passive smoking not only killed but also made it more difficult for smokers to quit.
The Lancet disagreed that price was the main determinant of how many people smoked.
"Availability and acceptability are more important," it said. "If tobacco were an illegal substance, possession of cigarettes would become a crime, and the number of smokers would drastically fall.
"Cigarette-smoking is a dangerous addiction.
"We should be doing a great deal more to prevent this disease and to help its victims. We call on Tony Blair's government to ban tobacco."
Forest, the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco, said it had greeted The Lancet's call with "amusement and disbelief".
Its director, Mr Simon Clark, said: "The Lancet has done us a favour. We now know exactly where we stand. There speaks the true voice of the rabid anti-smoking zealot." - (PA)