Pope Francis has ordered a ban on the sale of cigarettes inside the Vatican from next year because of health concerns.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics smoking causes more than seven million deaths worldwide every year.
Cigarettes have been sold at a discounted price to Vatican employees and pensioners.
Vatican employees are allowed to buy five cartons of cigarettes a month.
Many Italians ask their non-smoking friends who work in the Vatican to buy cigarettes for them because they cost much less.
However, the sale of large cigars would continue at least for the time being because the smoke is not inhaled.
The Vatican, a tiny walled city-state surrounded by Rome, is one of the few states to ban smoking. Bhutan, where smoking is deemed bad for one’s karma, banned the sale of tobacco in 2005.
-Reuters-
