The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday urged governments to protect the world's 1.8 billion youth by imposing a ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

"A ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is a powerful tool we can use to protect the world's youth," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in a statement.

The WHO's call came on the eve of World No Tobacco Day, May 31.This year's campaign will focus on the multi-billion-dollar efforts of tobacco companies to attract young people to their addictive products through sophisticated marketing.

"In order to survive, the tobacco industry needs to replace those who quit or die with new young consumers," said Chan.

"It does this by creating a complex 'tobacco marketing net' that ensnares millions of young people worldwide, with potentially devastating health consequences."

Recent studies show that the more young people are exposed to tobacco advertising, the more likely they are to start smoking.

Tobacco companies, meanwhile, continue to target the young by falsely associating the use of tobacco products with qualities such as glamor, energy and sex appeal, the studies say.

Since most people start smoking before the age of 18, and almost a quarter of new smokers are younger than 10, tobacco companies market their products wherever youth can be easily accessed -- in the movies, on the Internet, in fashion magazines, and at music and sports venues.

In a WHO study of 13 to 15-year-olds at schools worldwide, more than 55 percent of students reported seeing advertisements for cigarettes on billboards in the previous month, while 20 percent owned an item with the logo of a cigarette brand on it.

But it is the developing world, home to more than 80 percent of the world's youth, that is most aggressively targeted by tobacco companies.

Young women and girls are particularly at risk, with tobacco companies seeking to weaken cultural opposition to their products in countries where women have traditionally not used tobacco.

"The tobacco industry employs predatory marketing strategies to get young people hooked to their addictive drug," said Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

"But comprehensive advertising bans do work, reducing tobacco consumption by up to 16 percent in countries that have already taken this legislative step," he said.

"Half measures are not enough," Bettcher noted. "When one form of advertising is banned, the tobacco industry simply shifts its vast resources to another channel. We urge governments to impose a complete ban to break the tobacco marketing net."

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2008)