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Report Predicts Grim Statistics for Tobacco Deaths in China

   VOA News 06 January 2011
   A  man  blows  out  cigarette smoke outside a church in Beijing, (File
   2010)

Photo: REUTERS

   A  man  blows  out  cigarette smoke outside a church in Beijing, (File
   2010)

   [1]A  new  report  predicts that cigarette smoking will be killing 3.5
   million people a year in China within two decades.
   The  report  was  prepared  by  Chinese  and international experts and
   released  Thursday,  days  before a World Health Organization deadline
   for China to ban smoking at public indoor venues.
   There  is  no  chance that China will meet the Sunday deadline, one of
   several  conditions imposed when it was admitted to the WHO five years
   ago.
   The  forecast for 2030 compares to about 1.2 million a year people who
   die of tobacco-related causes in China currently. The report says that
   in  2030,  smoking  will  account  for about 25 percent of all deaths,
   compared to between two and three percent who die from AIDS.
   The  report, entitled "Tobacco Control and China's Future," notes that
   cigarette smoking is deeply entrenched in Chinese culture. But it says
   efforts  to  reduce  smoking  are complicated by the importance of tax
   revenues  from  the tobacco industry and by cigarette companies' heavy
   spending on social programs.
   The  Chinese  Association on Tobacco Control has been quoted as saying
   52  tobacco  companies  donated  to  or  sponsored  79  public welfare
   activities  in  40  cities and counties during the last four months of
   2009.
   But  Thursday's report argues that the social costs of smoking greatly
   outweigh  the benefits. The authors balance health care and lost-labor
   costs against the industry's social and salary contributions, and come
   up with a net loss to society of more than $9 billion a year.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

References

   1. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-01/06/c_13679227.htm

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