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.

The China report cited a review of eight popular television series and 10 movies conducted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003. The review found that each TV series had an average of 165 scenes involving tobacco, and an average of 47.5 minutes of total airtime for tobacco products. The 10 movies each had an average of 26 tobacco scenes with a total duration of about six minutes.

A survey conducted in Beijing indicated that on average, there were two cigarette venders near each primary or high school and that nine out of 10 students can find sales points within 200 meters of their homes. Nine out of 10 students also said they had never been refused when attempting to purchase cigarettes.

Fresh efforts

To help people kick the habit, the WHO has established a package of the six most important and effective tobacco control policies, namely, raising prices, banning advertising, promotion and sponsorship, protecting people from secondhand smoke, warning about the dangers of tobacco, offering help to people who want to quit, and carefully monitoring the epidemic and prevention policies.

The Chinese Government has also published several laws and regulations to control tobacco, including the Advertisement Law, Interim Measures for Administration of Tobacco Advertisements, the Law on Tobacco Monopoly, the Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency. These laws prohibit tobacco advertisements, and sales of tobacco products to minors.

Loopholes still exist in the implementation of these laws. For instance, although studies suggest banning tobacco advertisements can reduce tobacco consumption, a complete ban is not easy to implement. Tobacco companies often disguise the promotion of their products and brand name as anti-smoking advertisements. Rather than deterring young people from smoking, these advertisements often allude that smoking is cool, and associate smoking with positive things such as success and maturity.

More vigorous efforts against smoking were implemented in China after Beijing won its bid for the Olympic Games. Since then, Beijing has taken a number of strong measures against smoking in public places. It banned smoking in restaurants in April 2007, and in taxis in October 2007. Starting from May 2008, smoking was banned in most public areas in Beijing, including medical facilities, kindergartens, schools, cultural institutions such as cinemas, museums and archives, the service halls of banks, post offices and other commercial facilities, public transportation and ticket rooms, as well as indoor platforms, stations for public transportation, stadium, gyms and fitness centers, and offices and meeting rooms of government and public institutions.