World No Tobacco Day Symposium in Tokyo

A symposium addressing anti-smoking measures and the problem of passive smoking was held in Tokyo to mark World No Tobacco Day on Monday.

The event, co-hosted by the World Health Organization, Japan's health and welfare ministry and others, involved about 200 people, including doctors and researchers.

A W-H-O expert noted that 600,000 people worldwide die from second-hand smoke every year, and that further regulations must be put in place to protect younger people from falling victim to cigarettes.

In Yokohama city, near Tokyo, an event was held to measure the ill effects of passive smoking. In the event, smokers learned that their lung-ages were more than double their actual ages.

The health ministry issued a non-binding directive calling for a blanket ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces in February, on the grounds that passive smoking increases the risk of lung cancer.

The city government of Kashiwa in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, has totally banned smoking outdoors on the streets in and around the city's main railway station. They removed all the ashtrays in the city's designated smoking areas before dawn on Monday.

The government of Osaka Prefecture has prohibited its officials from smoking on the streets around its office building, in addition to areas inside the office and its compound.