February 22, 1999

When cigar fancier Elliott Boychuk went on a Mexican vacation last year, he found a haven for his smelly habit.

"When I light up at home my wife kicks me out of the house, restaurants won't let me smoke and it's cold outside in Alberta," says the 30-something Edmontonian. "But in Mexico you could smoke cigars anywhere, and they cost about half what they cost in Canada because there's less tax. One night, as my wife and I enjoyed a liqueur after this exquisite meal, she petted the restaurant cat -- no one cares if cats hang around restaurants in Mexico -- and I smoked a Cohiba Robusto. I thought: 'Good food, cats and cigars. It's nice to be in a civilized country.' "

If the World Health Organization (WHO) has its way, however, Mexico and other developing countries will soon become much less civilized. In a January 30 speech at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland called demon tobacco "a real epidemic." "It will hit countries which at present have very weak means of defense," said Br. Brundtland. "It is driven by a part of industry which is massively focusing its marketing efforts an youth and women in those countries."

Global action is WHO's answer. "We work with the World Bank, UNICEF and other [United Nations] partners," said Dr. Brundtland, "to strengthen control, taxation politics, and a ban on advertising."

The speech pleases Les Hagen, executive director of the Action on Smoking and Health anti-tobacco group. "We should support global efforts to curb smoking in developing countries," he says. Mr. Boychuk is not coping so well. "Who cares if cigarettes and cigars cost a little less in some countries?" he asks. "Doesn't the WHO have anything better to do?"

Thomas Fleming thinks WHO is empire-building. "The economist Northcote Parkinson said that every bureaucrat's job is to hire another bureaucrat and make a bigger department with more to do, so they get more money," says Mr. Fleming, to Rockford, Illinois, editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. "They find issues they can champion: women's rights, pollution, child abuse. That works at the municipal, the provincial, the national and the international level."

The modern-day demonization of smokers is perfect for WHO, says Mr. Fleming, who smokes a cigar a week himself. "Why doesn't the WHO ask for a worldwide standard on really basic problems like automobiles, or nuclear energy, or the junk plastics we use everyday?" he asks. "If you go to Mexico City, it's instant lung cancer because the smoke is so bad, and it's not because of people smoking. But there actually are dimwits out there who believe smoking is danger to us all. You know, I was at an outdoor folks concert in Illinois and I walked 50 feet away from where anyone was sitting and I lit a cigar. This guy came up to ma and said, "Do you realize there are children here? I said 'Good. They'll learn what a good cigar smells like.' "