The World Health Organisation study has warned that a third of all people in Mongolia die prematurely from smoking.  The bad habit is blamed for many diseases, in particular lung cancer and heart disease. In Mongolia, the mortality rate related to heart disease has doubled because of smoking.

While smoking rates have fallen in developed countries – to less than one in five, for example, in the US – they have risen in Mongolia as the country tops in the world.

The International Day for Fighting against Smoking is organised worldwide on 31 May for publicising the dangerous health effects of smoking.

 Over 6,000,000 people die prematurely from smoking in the world; 10 percent die from the smoke of others.