SAY NO TO SMOKING: Students of No. 7 Middle School in Guizhou Province, one of the largest tobacco-producing provinces in China, express their determination to stay away from cigarettes. (YU XIAOPING)

According to the 2008 China Tobacco Control Report, 32.4 percent of young people between the age of 13 to 18 have experimented with smoking and 11.5 percent are currently smokers.

The report, released in May 2008 by China's Ministry of Health, focused on smoking among young people, identifying smoking triggers and measures that could help to reduce the number of smokers.

It was the third such annual report published since China joined the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention was adopted on May 21, 2003, and officially went into effect in China in January 2006. The first report published by China in 2006 focused on tobacco control and lung cancer prevention and treatment, while the second report published in 2007 primarily looked at secondhand smoking.

Teen trend

In the report a smoker is defined someone who smokes at least a whole cigarette in 30 days. According to the report, China has 130 million young people between the age of 13 and 18, and has about 15 million young smokers. China has the largest number of smokers in the world, and its tobacco supply and consumption also top the world.

Young males are significantly more likely to experiment with smoking or to become addicted than young females, according to the report. The rate of current smoking is 18.4 percent among males and 3.6 percent among females, and the rate increases the fastest between the third year of junior high school and the first year of senior high school.

An increasing number of teenagers are taking their first puff at an earlier age. According to statistics, the number of people who smoked a whole cigarette before the age of 13 increased 15 percent from 1998 to 2005.

In addition to active smoking, about half of all young people are exposed to secondhand smoke at home and in public places.

Triggers

Smoking is a serious health hazard, especially to young people. Tobacco use is a risk factor in six of the eight leading causes of death in the world, including cardiovascular and cerebral vascular diseases, cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, noted the WHO (World Health Organization) Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008, released in February 2008. Tobacco use caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century, and if unchecked, it will cause an estimated 1 billion deaths during the 21st century, it said.

Given the risks, why do young people still start smoking? According to the 2008 China Tobacco Control Report, exposure to tobacco advertisements and images of smoking in movies and TV programs, as well as easy access to tobacco products, draw young people into the habit.