In 2008, China was home to 300 million adult smokers who consumed approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, or 3 million cigarettes a minute.
In a report just released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current statistics tell us that the tobacco epidemic plaguing China isn't improving.
Today there are approximately 301 million adult smokers, and only 16 percent of them are thinking about quitting within the next year.
Here in the United States we have the benefit of anti-smoking campaigns and legislation that are aggressively geared toward teaching us about the health hazards of smoking and how to quit using tobacco. In China however, the message doesn't seem to be sinking in. A few pertinent statistics:
- 46.4% of adults noticed anti-cigarette smoking information on the television or radio.
- 63.6% of current smokers who noticed a warning label on cigarette packs did not think about quitting smoking.
- 23.2% of adults believe smoking causes stroke, heart attack, and lung cancer.
- 24.6% of Chinese adults believe exposure to tobacco smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in adults and lung illnesses in children.
Read the CDC Report: Smoking and Tobacco Use: 2010 China Fact Sheets
Image © Stockpert
Related:
