WHO: Treaty slows global tobacco use by 2.5%

PARIS: Tobacco use fell by 2.5 percent worldwide a decade after the first global health treaty went into effect, World Health Organization researchers said Wednesday.

Smoking rates declined most sharply when countries implemented several of the measures called for in the 2005 pact, and rose in some nations that failed to do so, suggesting anti-tobacco policies make a real difference, they reported in The Lancet, a medical journal.