THE TELEGRAPH: More than 301 million people are still smoking in China, despite efforts to curb tobacco use, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control.
A survey of more than 13,000 people earlier this year found no significant improvement in the country’s smoking rate since 2002, China’s CDC said in a joint statement released with the World Health Organization and the United States CDC.
The survey also found that almost three quarters of nonsmokers reported being exposed to secondhand smoke. Though China has pledged to make indoor public places, workplaces and public transport smoke-free by early next year, more than six in 10 of those surveyed said they had seen people smoking in public places or at work in the 30 days before they were interviewed.
“There has been no substantive improvement in the smoking rate or exposure to secondhand smoke,” Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of China’s CDC, said.
Mr Yang said disease and death from problems related to smoking and secondhand smoke, such as cancer and coronary heart disease, were expected to “rise unabated” over the next 30 years.
“The burden on society will be immense and progress in public health will suffer as a result,” Yang said. >>> | Wednesday, August 18, 2010
