1/3 of young Chinese men will die from smoking

Yes, if the men keep smoking as a new study has suggested that one in three of all the young men in China will eventually be killed by tobacco. In 2010, there were one million deaths because of smoking, mostly among males. Published in latest issue of the The Lancet medical journal, the team’s research shows that two-thirds of young men in China develop a smoking habit in their teens. “Unless they stop, about half of them will eventually be killed by their habit”, said the article’s co-author, Zhengming Chen, from Oxford University.

The medical scientists performed couple of substantial, country wide company representative clinical trials 15 existence apart, staying on top of overall health results of smoke in China. The first study, conducted in the 1990s, involved approximately 250,000 men.

Yet, researchers also worry that this downward trend among Chinese women might be reversed as other studies have shown more young women taking up smoking recently.

The findings highlight a stark contrast to developed nations, where smoking levels have been reduced substantially in recent years.

“Widespread smoking cessation offers China one of the most effective, and cost-effective, strategies to avoid disability and premature death over the next few decades”.

The 2010 death toll was made up of a few 840,000 men and 130,000 women in China, which has a population of about 1.4 billion.

Smoking causes lung cancer, which is often fatal, and is the world’s biggest cause of premature death from chronic conditions like heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. About 10 percent of the women born in the 1930s smoked, but only about 1percent of those born in the 1960s did so. But, the researchers note, smoking has again become fashionable among Chinese women.

For the research, the team in charge with the study gathered data from hundreds of thousands of Chinese people. In urban areas, where air pollution undoubtedly adds to the problem, the percentage has grown to 25 percent and is believed to be markedly rising. Also, many people in China find it hard to kick the habit in a culture where smoking has become so ingrained.

Oxford University’s Richard Peto, one of the study authors, said tobacco deaths in Western countries have been dropping for 20 years, partly because of stiff price rises.

Income from tobacco sales and taxes are major sources of government revenue in China.

According to the World Health Organization, cigarettes may kill almost half of their smokers.