Furthermore, PAHO noted that tobacco use is on the rise in most countries in the Americas. The organization is urging governments to get tough on tobacco sales to help reverse the trend.

"Smoking in the Americas, as in any developing countries, is on the increase and we can be sure that the amount of disease from smoking is going to go up -- particularly heart disease and cancer,'' said David Brandling-Bennett, deputy director of the PAHO.

Brandling-Bennett said the increase in tobacco use is the result of "an emulation of the developed western culture, which people associate with smoking for various reasons."

He also placed blame on the tobacco industry, which he said is "making a positive effort to increase smoking rates because it sees the future market as being limited -- certainly in North America and probably in Europe as well. So it has got to seek new markets and it's doing so, unfortunately, apparently successfully."

In a presentation at the recent World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Chicago, Ill., Heather Selin, a tobacco-control advisor at PAHO, reported that efforts to counter tobacco use have been "insufficient and outdated."

"I think what needs to be done is for governments to implement the recommendations of a report of the World Bank that we released last year," said Selin. "We know that increasing tobacco taxes is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use. We also know that comprehensive advertising restricting -- as close to a ban as countries can get -- is effective. We know that restricting smoking indoors is effective. We know that consumer information such as mass media and strong, meaningful and visible warnings on cigarette packages are effective."

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