Largest-ever tobacco study finds 'urgent need' for policy change

Tobacco use is on the rise in some developing countries according to a large-scale study.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

It's being called the largest-ever international study on tobacco use
"The burden of tobacco use is moving," says the study's lead author
About half the men in developing nations surveyed use tobacco, the study says
Women in those regions are taking up smoking at an earlier age, it adds

(CNN) -- About half the men in numerous developing
nations use tobacco, and women in those regions are taking up smoking at
an earlier age than they used to, according to what is being called the
largest-ever international study on tobacco use.

The study, which covered
enough representative samples to estimate tobacco use among 3 billion
people, "demonstrates an urgent need for policy change in low- and
middle-income countries," said lead researcher Gary Giovino, whose
report was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

The figures bolster
statements by the World Health Organization that while much of the
industrialized world, including the United States, has seen a
substantial reduction in smoking in recent years, the opposite trend is
under way in parts of the developing world.

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