NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The World Health Organization on Monday announced a sweeping plan that urges governments around the globe to eliminate the use of trans fats, the industrially produced edible oil that gave birth to margarine, Crisco and other artery-clogging products that have been linked to millions of premature deaths.

Artificial trans fats, better known to many American consumers as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, have contributed to a half million deaths a year, many of those in developing countries ill-equipped to address the health threats posed by a product cherished for its low price and long shelf life.

The campaign, more a set of guidelines than an edict, seeks to eradicate trans fats from global food supplies by 2023, potentially saving some 10 million lives, according to the W.H.O.

The campaign was developed in partnership with Vital Strategies, a global health group backed by Michael Bloomberg, who introduced the nation’s first municipal ban on trans fats in 2006, when he was mayor of New York City.