The Secretary-General of the World Health Organisation has highlighted smoking trends in women and young people as key health concerns in the fight against tobacco.
In her opening address to the World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Dr Gro Harlem Brundt land compared the four million global tobacco-related deaths to the AIDS epidemic. "As we meet here in Chicago, we need to break the silence surrounding the tobacco epidemic," she said.
Dr Brundtland told delegates it was time that the tobacco companies were held accountable for the promises they had made to mend their ways in the future.
"Let us see an end to the glamorisation of tobacco use, to its promotion through advertisement, sponsorship and free gifts. Let us see you support a strong international convention for tobacco control that enables countries and their people to work together to counter the risks posed by tobacco use," she said in a message to tobacco companies.
The WHO Secretary-General also challenged the industry to discourage young people from smoking.
"Then we will be able to say that the silence and the complicity around tobacco has been broken," she said. "Then we will be able to say that we are working together to promote health and not tobacco."