Korea's anti-smoking efforts are not statistically supported, reducing their effectiveness.
Jump to full article: Korea Times (kr), 2009-05-17
Author: Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter
Intro: The Korean Association of Smoking & Health said Sunday that the country's smoking rate headed south from 26.4 percent in 2005 to 24.1 percent in 2006 and 21.9 percent last year.
This sharply contrasts to Bank of Korea data, which shows that the overall expenditure on tobacco rose from 4.65 trillion won in 2005 to 4.95 trillion won in 2006 and 5.58 trillion won last year.
This means Koreans households channel up to 1.5 percent of their expenditure in purchasing cigarettes. Put otherwise, Koreans lit up a smoke about 65 billion times in 2008.
Experts came up with various explanations for the mystery such as the facts that foreigners are excluded from the smoking rate survey or smuggled tobacco is disappearing of late. But they struggle to explain the widening gap between the two figures.
Whatever the reason may be, lawmakers from both governing and opposition parties argue that the Seoul administration is lukewarm in its anti-smoking campaign.
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