Voicing concern over the "alarmingly high" tobacco consumption in the region, eleven South Asian countries including India, today pledged to accelerate "hard-hitting" measures to reduce its use.
The 'Dili Declaration' signed at the capital of Timor-Leste where the 68th Regional Committee Meeting of the WHO South-East Asia Region began today, also urged governments and UN agencies to accelerate tobacco control in the region which accounts for over one-third of the world's tobacco use.
"Tobacco use in South-East Asia is alarmingly high triggering major health and economic consequences. Tougher actions are needed for tobacco control and prevention.
"Countries must equally tax all tobacco products, ban tobacco advertisements, enforce pictorial warning on cigarette packs and implement ban on public smoking," said, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region during the adoption of the declaration.
The WHO statement said that tobacco kills 150 people every hour in the WHO South-East Asia region.
The meeting is being attended by health ministers and high-level health ministry delegations from all eleven member countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
WHO said that tobacco kills 1.3 million people in the region every year which includes people who have never used tobacco themselves but were exposed to second-hand and third-hand tobacco effects.
The region is home to 25 per cent of the world's smokers and 90 per cent of the world's smokeless tobacco users - about 246 million and 290 million people respectively.
It said that the prevalence of different types of smokeless tobacco which is chewed, or sucked, snuffed orally or nasally, sipped or gargled, or applied to teeth and gums is on the rise.
"In 2012 an estimated 62 per cent deaths in the region were attributed to non-communicable diseases - of these 48 per cent were below 70 years. We know that tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths," Singh said in her inaugural address.
