Smoking Kills Two-Thirds of Young Men in China

England One in three of most the young men in China will get murdered by tobacco products except if a rich amount of one have success in kicking the habit of tobacco, research scientists said on Friday. “Armenpress” informs about the aforementioned, citing BBC.

China now consumes a third of the world’s cigarettes.

The researchers spent more than 15 years and pored over two national surveys to collect relevant data about the millions of smokers in China. There are many myths about smoking in China, such as that Asians are biologically immune to the smoking hazards that hurt people in the West, or that tobacco use is an essential part of ancient Chinese culture.

“The annual number of deaths in China that are caused by tobacco will rise from about 1 million in 2010 to 2 million in 2030 and 3 million in 2050 unless there is widespread cessation”, the report said.

The first study, which took place in the 1990s, involved over 250,000 men, while the second, which is still ongoing, is looking at half a million men and women. “Aabout 10 percent of the women born in the 1930s smoked, but only about 1 percent of those born in the 1960s did so”. Only one out of four know that smoking can cause lung and heart diseases such as cancer. In contrast, just 3.2% of Chinese women smoke, although that won’t let them off the hook, either.

Younger women in China have been smoking less than their older counterparts but researchers are anxious this trend might be changing as other studies indicate more young women have increasingly been taking it up.

“Without rapid, committed, and widespread action to reduce smoking levels, China will face enormous numbers of premature deaths”, said Liming Li, a professor at the Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing who co-led a large analysis of the issue.

This in-depth study, published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal reveals that approximately two-thirds of the young manhood population start to smoke even before they turn 20. According to a Bloomberg Business feature on the topic, the industry accounts for 7 percent of the country’s revenue each year and employs roughly 500,000 people. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills up to half of its consumers.

Richard Peto, co-author from the University of Oxford, said, “The key to avoid this huge wave of deaths is cessation, and if you are a young man, don’t start”.

A few people are showing growing signs of awareness of the health risks.