Can Asia Kick the Habit?

In the Tondo Slum, a 30-minute drive from downtown Manila, thousands of Filipinos live in sordid shacks beside the ironically named Aroma dump site. Destitute, they make a living by scavenging amid the trash that stretches into the middle distance—for this is where much of the capital's garbage ends up. The smell is the first thing that leaves you speechless: from the toxic singe of burning plastic to the reek of scattered sewage. The second is the sight of Aroma's enthusiastic smokers. Not of the skeletal granddads or of the work gangs, cigarettes permanently dangling from their lower lips. No, the...