China's smoking epidemic worsens (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

China's smoking epidemic worsens
Up to 300-million Chinese people are smokers
Source: Business Day, Thursday, 10/7/99

BEIJING - A tough crackdown would be the only way to stop people smoking
across China, residents said yesterday after a survey revealed the world's
most populous country is heading for a "tobacco epidemic".

More than 300-million Chinese people are lighting up every day, according
to the study undertaken in 30 Chinese provinces during 1996.

But smokers say the habit is so ingrained here that authorities face an
uphill battle to change the culture.

"They should first ban kids from buying cigarettes. Adults will listen to
the anti-smoking commercials, but kids are rebellious," said Liang Jie, a
Beijing shopkeeper.

The study, which appeared in yesterday's Journal of the American Medical
Association, showed an alarming 63% of Chinese men smoke, and revealed
Chinese people were starting to smoke at a younger age than before.

   The survey urged the Chinese government to take tough action to
suppress smoking: such as banning tobacco sales to young people and
restricting tobacco advertising.

Currently there are no laws prohibiting minors from buying cigarettes,
although cigarette advertising in subway stations and on television is not
allowed.

Chinese people say that in the past couple of years they have witnessed a
new generation of Chinese lighting up despite government efforts to curb
tobacco consumption.

"Even kids as young as 12 head to the snack stand to buy cigarettes as
soon as school is out," said Liang.  "When we were their age, we had
barely enough money to buy candy. Now they're the only child in the
family, they can afford to do anything they want."

The survey, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine,
Chinese Association on Smoking and Health in Beijing and an academic from
the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in the
US, indicated that only 16,8% of the smokers want to quit - and fewer than
half recognise that lung cancer is smoking-related, the survey showed.

Liang claims new anti-smoking commercials released a year ago, which show
blackened smokers' lungs, are working, at least on the adults.

However, people in the countryside especially are unaware of the harmful
effects of smoking.

The World Health Organisation last year estimated 2-million of the
10-million people worldwide who will die from smoking-related causes each
year will be Chinese.

It warns China faces huge public health costs if it cannot convince its
more than 300-million smokers to quit the habit. - Sapa-AFP.