The organization's made the statement during WHO's launch of a global campaign to ban tobacco advertising. "Tobacco is a communicable disease. It's communicated through advertising, marketing and making smoking appear admirable and glamorous," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the WHO.

According to Brundtland, 10 million people a year will die from tobacco-related deaths by 2030.

In launching the campaign, the WHO held a World No-Tobacco Day in Bangkok, Thailand, to honor the activists who won a nationwide ban on tobacco advertising in 1992. More than 10,000 people gathered for a rally that including anti-tobacco songs.

During the ceremony, Brundtland accused the tobacco industry of using sports and entertainment figures to market its products to children. "It is hard, if not impossible, to find any parallel in history where people who have gone about in such a systematic way perpetuating death and destruction have gone unpunished and unquestioned," she said.

Brundtland's comments were challenged by the tobacco industry. David Wilson, regional manager of corporate affairs for British-American Tobacco, denied that cigarette companies target children.

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