Nations worldwide should adopt laws banning indoor smoking, according to new recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Associated Press reported May 29 that the WHO called on nations to ban smoking in indoor workplaces and public buildings to ensure that "everyone has a right to breathe clean air, free from tobacco smoke."

"The evidence is clear. There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke," said Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general. The United Nations estimates that secondhand smoke kills at least 200,000 workers worldwide each year, and WHO leaders called evidence about the health risks of environmental tobacco smoke "indisputable."

"This is not about shaming the smoker," said WHO antismoking campaign head Armando Peruga. "This is not even about banning smoking. This is about society taking decisions about where to smoke and where not to smoke."