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The government on Tuesday ratified an international treaty that would restrict or ban any advertising and promotional activities for tobacco by 2010. The treaty goes into effect 90 days after the government next month submits the ratification to the U.N.
The World Health Organization¡¯s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires member countries to restrict or ban tobacco advertising within the next five years and use prominent health warnings on tobacco packaging within the next three years. It also states that tobacco taxes and prices must be raised to reduce smoking and smoking must be banned in all public places.
¡°The WHO agreement contains fundamental measures most of which the government has already enacted in anti-smoking policy since last year,¡± a government official said.
Meanwhile, chicken pox vaccinations will become mandatory after the government designated varicella as an infectious disease in a proposed revision of the infectious diseases prevention law. The most common victims of chicken pox are children.
(Kim Hong-jin, mailer@chosun.com )
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