Anger as world health body bans recruitment of smokers

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provoked a furious row by announcing that people who smoke will automatically be banned from employment with the organisation.

Even job applicants who admit to using tobacco only occasionally will not be recruited by the organisation. Existing staff who smoke will be encouraged to kick their habit but will not lose their jobs if they do not give up.

The WHO said the move, which comes into force immediately, was based on its position as the head of the global campaign to reduce smoking rates across the world. But for once, both pro and anti-smoking groups in Britain were united in their condemnation of the move, calling it unfair and "foolish".

The UN agency employs around 2,400 people, mainly at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The new policy will cover people who chew tobacco and those who use snuff tobacco as well as those who smoke it.

Simon Clark, of the pro-smoking group Forest, said: "I think it is very disturbing, because it suggests that smokers are fair game for the type of treatment that simply would not be acceptable if it was targeted at any other minority group. What are the WHO going to do next - ban fat people or people who drink too much?"

A spokesman for the anti-smoking charity Ash said: "We think this is rather foolish. We should not be persecuting people smoking but encouraging them to give up." Employees at Ash were not asked whether or not they smoked, he added.