[Intl-tobacco] 350 million smokers start to worry China

[Robert Weissman]

    St. Paul Pioneer Press
Posted on Sun, Jan. 01, 2006
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350 million smokers start to worry China
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*BY CRAIG SIMONS*
*Cox News Service*

BEIJING =97 In a nation where officials favor expensive cars and
bureaucrats build mammoth glass-and-steel city halls, the offices of
China's National Tobacco Control Office =97 the bureau charged with
educating the country's 1.3 billion people about the health hazards of
smoking =97 are small and dingy.

"There's not much money available," Jiang Yuan, the bureau's 42-year-old
deputy director, said as she cleared space for a visitor in a room she
shares with several colleagues.

The lack of resources is nothing new for Jiang. She was one of two
employees when she started working in 2002.

"Very few Chinese thought smoking was a problem back then," she said.
"It was a very low priority."

That is starting to change.

In October, Beijing began to implement regulations stipulated by the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Initiated by the World Health
Organization in 1998, it was signed by 192 countries in 2003.

Under the agreement, China will require health warnings on all tobacco
products by 2008 and will ban tobacco advertising by 2010.

*SMOKE-FREE OLYMPICS*

The government recently announced a "smoke-free Olympics" campaign aimed
at curbing smoking before the 2008 Summer Games, tougher enforcement of
anti-smoking laws and improved health education in schools.

The government also is setting up an inter-agency group to control
tobacco use, said Xu Guihua, assistant director of the Chinese
Association on Tobacco Control, an organization working to limit smoking.

The Health Ministry has increased the number of full-time staff at the
National Tobacco Control Office to seven, a change that Jiang called a
major improvement.

She noted, however, that compared to the United States and other Western
countries, the number of government employees working to control smoking
in China is still miniscule.

For Chinese and the world's tobacco industry, China's nascent efforts to
curb the country's nicotine habit could have far-reaching impacts.

China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco products.
An estimated 350 million Chinese smoke some 1.7 trillion cigarettes a
year, one third of the world's total.

Two-thirds of all Chinese men smoke and the number of women smokers is
rising quickly, Xu said.

Because cigarettes were scarce under China's planned economy in the
1960s and 1970s, the health costs of Chinese smoking are only starting
to be seen.

According to Jiang, roughly 1.2 million Chinese die of tobacco-related
diseases annually, a figure that she said could double by 2030.

"Controlling smoking is the most important step the government can take
to prevent disease," Jiang said, adding that the budget for smoking
education is a fraction of the money spent on campaigns in 2003 to stop
the spread of SARS, which killed 774 people worldwide.

But tobacco also is big business, and experts note that many Chinese
officials oppose steps that might damage the industry.

*BIG BUSINESS*

China's state-owned cigarette factories, which hold a monopoly on
domestic production, earned $46 billion in 2004, according to the
Guangzhou provincial Tobacco Bureau. The official China Daily newspaper
reported in April that taxes collected from "tobacco planters, producers
and sellers" account for "about 10 percent of state tax income."

"Tobacco products are the biggest industry in many parts of China," Xu
said. "We need to find ways to help local governments develop
alternative economies."

Western tobacco companies are eager to make further inroads within
China's market. Philip Morris announced recently that it would partner
with the China National Tobacco Corporation to produce Marlboro cigarettes.

British American Tobacco, which sold cigarettes in China before the
Communist Party nationalized the industry in 1950, has marketed at many
cultural activities, Jiang said.

For Jiang, the most important question is whether the government's
increased efforts to curb Chinese smoking will outpace the impact of
corporate advertising.

"Compared to 10 years ago," she said, "we've made great progress. But
there's still a long way to go."

China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco products.
An estimated 350 million Chinese smoke some 1.7 trillion cigarettes a
year, one third of the world's total.