Chinese Smokers Reach 300 Mln

Currently, China has over 300 million smokers, with an increasing rate of young smokers, Huang Jiefu, the Vice Minister of Health said on Thursday.

Statistics show that the rate of teenage smokers is increasing year by year, with a tendency to begin young. This problem has become the top priority for China's tobacco control efforts, Huang added.

The assessment which the China Tobacco Control Association made after making unannounced visits to 800 schools last year revealed that only 2% of those schools assessed gained scores over 60 out of 100 when measuring the smoke-free environment. 83.63% of schools scored 40 points or less.

In July 2010, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health jointly developed a series of standards and rules to prevent and control teenage smoking.

The China Tobacco Control Association launched a pilot project on Tuesday to build up 30 different types of national smoke-free model schools across three cities, including Beijing, ZhengZhou, and Kaifeng.

Huang confirmed that, as the world's largest tobacco-producing and consuming country, China has 300 million smokers and 740 million victims of secondhand smoking. On top of this, around 1.2 million people die from tobacco-related diseases each year.