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Smoking Prevalence - China on Road to Distructionby Authur Richard
Projections show that tens of millions of Chinese will die of cigarette smoking related lung illnesses over the coming 25 years. Due to the rampant and easy cigarette accessibility and ineffective government efforts to stop the phenomenon up to 3 million people per year start to smoke in China. Smoking deaths in China today stand at 700 000 annually. In fact the UN through WHO says smoking is "the biggest preventable cause of death in China". Without stopping smoking a third of all young men in China today will be dead in the next few decades. China is the world's biggest cigarette marker. It follows that the biggest tobacco company in the world is in China. Smoking is so prevalent in China so much that 1.6 trillion cigarettes are sold per year perpetuating the smoking habit. Of all the cigarettes produced in the world, 3% are consumed in China. It is amazing that in one of the provinces instead of helping people give up smoking; the local government there imposed fines on smokers who smoked less than a set quota in order to promote the local economy. In order to at least manage smoking prevalence, China signed the global convention for tobacco control. However tobacco sales and production is still going through the roof. China's situation is unique yet horrific. The government gets most of its tax revenue from tobacco related products. This has created a situation were the government has exceptionally unique vested interest in even the marketing of tobacco. This obviously over drives tobacco prevalence. In acknowledgment of the effects of smoking the government imposed a smoking ban albeit impartial during the Beijing Olympics of 2008. Smoking in public places such as schools, hospitals and offices in the city was banned. Business and other associations over-powered the government to avoid bans in restaurants, bars and massage parlors; completely the opposite of what obtains in western countries. China is indeed firmly on a frightening path to destruction concerning tobacco effects. Stinging smoking laws in the developed world have caused re-focused marketing by western tobacco companies in China the world's biggest cigarette market. No wonder incidents of lung cancers have increased by up to 465% in the past 30 years. Quitting smoking is not easy either in such an environment of sky high smoking prevalence. There is always renewed pressure to smoke from friends and family members at work and home. A clinic in Beijing, for example, reported that out of 60 patients attended to only three were able to give up smoking. Unlike someone who has never smoked, giving up smoking is a life-time state of affairs that will require one to be vigilant and keep on guard in order to maintain it to avoid a smoking relapse. China has a mammoth task to avert a fast coming tobacco total disaster as time is running out.
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