An international conference on lung cancer in Tokyo attended by 2,500 doctors and researchers adopted a declaration Thursday calling for governments around the world to implement policies against smoking.
The declaration at the ninth World Conference on Lung Cancer, which started Monday under the sponsorship of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, said "Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world."
"The incidence is rising at an alarming rate in both men and women. Ninety percent of cases are caused by active or passive smoking and therefore could be avoided or prevented," it said.
To help achieve its goal of eliminating the disease, the association asked governments around the world to develop new methods of preventing smoking, and therefore nicotine addiction, among children, as well as to increase tobacco taxes and introduce education on the dangers of smoking at all levels.
It also asked all industrial sectors and media organizations to eliminate tobacco advertising and marketing.
In the declaration, the association vowed to make materials for educational programs on smoking and lung cancer.
Harubumi Kato, a professor at the Department of Surgery at Tokyo Medical University, was elected president of the association at the conference.
"We will do our utmost to carry out the declaration and to proceed with the regulation of tobacco," he said.