Study Shows Spread of Cigarettes in China

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Study Shows Spread of Cigarettes in China
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OCT. 12, 2015

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Men smoking in Beijing. A study found that one-third of all young men in China will die from smoking cigarettes. CreditMark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
Global Health

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.


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• study, published last week in The Lancet, estimated that two-thirds of all males in China smoked, more were still taking up the habit and more were starting as teenagers, which adds risk.
  
  With population growth stagnant, the number of men 60 or older is expected to double by 2030, and the number dying of smoking-related ailments each year will triple, hitting three million a year by 2050.
  
  More smokers are stopping by choice, the study found, but still only 9 percent did so.
  
  By contrast, smoking rates among women in China have dropped sharply; about 10 percent of older women smoke, but only about 1 percent of middle-aged women do. However, another recent study detected rapid increases among teenage girls in some regions.
  
  Before China achieved prosperity, the Lancet study said, smokers typically started at age 25, more smoked pipes and many could not afford multiple cigarettes every day.
  
  The study estimated future smoking-related deaths from many causes, including lung cancer, obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, heart failureand other cancers. Lung disease rates are already high in China, even among nonsmokers, owing to urban air pollution and to indoor wood fires used by the rural poor.
  
  The study was led by scientists from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the University of Oxford.
  
  Antismoking efforts in China face a difficult political situation: The central government has a monopoly through the Chinese National Tobacco Corporation, and more than 7 percent of government revenue comes from it.
  
  According to an editorial accompanying the study, myths about smoking persist in China: that Asians are less susceptible to its dangers, that it is an ancient Chinese tradition and that quitting is easy.
  

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/health/study-shows-spread-of-cigarettes-in-china.html

 

[unit321]

Not surprised.
There's a whole new society of people with more wealth. The cigarette manufacturers don't push cigarette sales in the poor parts of Africa. They wouldn't be able to sustain their business model... give free cigarettes at first... get them addicted... then sell them to the nicotine addicts. But in China, they can do that.

 

[Brosef]

Lame habit, sad that it usually starts with adolescents trying to fit in

2/3 of all males in China is a ridiculous number

If you extrapolated that to all the secondary morbidity and mortality from cancers, GI disease etc., the results would be unfathomable

 

[plushcarpet]

with all the smog and pollution in china, the cigarettes are probably a breath of fresher air