China warned of surge in deaths from smoking
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
January 7, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
China's tobacco industry is foiling efforts to control smoking and state leaders must give stronger support to measures to control tobacco use, an international panel of experts said in a report yesterday.
It is estimated that about 3.5 million Chinese will die each year from tobacco-related illnesses by 2030, three times the current level, according to the report.
The health consequences of the tobacco epidemic are serious in China and smoking has become the top killer of the Chinese population, said the report, a joint assessment by a group of Chinese and foreign health experts and economists.
The report said an absence of government responsibility is the fundamental reason for the inadequate effectiveness of tobacco control in China.
The tobacco industry has resisted raising cigarette prices and using pictorial health warnings and had even infiltrated bodies set up to control smoking, reducing their effectiveness, the report said.
"The tobacco industry opposes tobacco control everywhere. But that opposition is very effective in China because it has presence in the body heading tobacco control," said Professor Yang Gonghuan, lead author of the report and deputy director general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yang said when the government imposed higher taxes on the industry to curb consumption, firms absorbed it without raising prices.
"Raising prices and using pictorial health warnings are two of the most effective measures but they used all ways and means to stop them," said Yang, who is also director of the National Office of Tobacco Control.
No national-level law has yet been passed banning smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, and there is no designated law on tobacco control in China. The Advertisement Law remains unrevised, and tobacco companies continue to circumvent advertising and sponsorship bans.
Yang said Chinese leaders must be more determined to control tobacco use and tobacco executives must be kept out of anti-smoking agencies.
"This is not just a report by public health experts, but also economists. They are telling you that if China still wants to modernize and grow economically, and if you don't control tobacco use, your economic growth will be affected," Yang said.
China has 300 million smokers who consume a third of the world's cigarettes. Nearly 60 percent of men in China smoke.
The numbers of smokers is almost the same as in 2002, and exposure to secondhand smoke has not changed over the past 10 years or so.
An estimated 740 million nonsmokers were being exposed to secondhand smoke in 2010, and exposure remains serious in public venues and workplaces.
The tobacco industry has become the largest industry endangering the health of the country, a key priority in economic transformation and industrial restructuring, said the report.
Experts suggest that China should begin the implementation of a national strategy of comprehensive tobacco control in the 12th five-year plan period (2011-2015).
Hu Angang, a Tsinghua University professor and co-editor of the report, said the country should strive to change from being the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer to the world's most active and effective country in tobacco control in a relatively short time.
It is estimated that about 3.5 million Chinese will die each year from tobacco-related illnesses by 2030, three times the current level, according to the report.
The health consequences of the tobacco epidemic are serious in China and smoking has become the top killer of the Chinese population, said the report, a joint assessment by a group of Chinese and foreign health experts and economists.
The report said an absence of government responsibility is the fundamental reason for the inadequate effectiveness of tobacco control in China.
The tobacco industry has resisted raising cigarette prices and using pictorial health warnings and had even infiltrated bodies set up to control smoking, reducing their effectiveness, the report said.
"The tobacco industry opposes tobacco control everywhere. But that opposition is very effective in China because it has presence in the body heading tobacco control," said Professor Yang Gonghuan, lead author of the report and deputy director general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yang said when the government imposed higher taxes on the industry to curb consumption, firms absorbed it without raising prices.
"Raising prices and using pictorial health warnings are two of the most effective measures but they used all ways and means to stop them," said Yang, who is also director of the National Office of Tobacco Control.
No national-level law has yet been passed banning smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, and there is no designated law on tobacco control in China. The Advertisement Law remains unrevised, and tobacco companies continue to circumvent advertising and sponsorship bans.
Yang said Chinese leaders must be more determined to control tobacco use and tobacco executives must be kept out of anti-smoking agencies.
"This is not just a report by public health experts, but also economists. They are telling you that if China still wants to modernize and grow economically, and if you don't control tobacco use, your economic growth will be affected," Yang said.
China has 300 million smokers who consume a third of the world's cigarettes. Nearly 60 percent of men in China smoke.
The numbers of smokers is almost the same as in 2002, and exposure to secondhand smoke has not changed over the past 10 years or so.
An estimated 740 million nonsmokers were being exposed to secondhand smoke in 2010, and exposure remains serious in public venues and workplaces.
The tobacco industry has become the largest industry endangering the health of the country, a key priority in economic transformation and industrial restructuring, said the report.
Experts suggest that China should begin the implementation of a national strategy of comprehensive tobacco control in the 12th five-year plan period (2011-2015).
Hu Angang, a Tsinghua University professor and co-editor of the report, said the country should strive to change from being the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer to the world's most active and effective country in tobacco control in a relatively short time.
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