Categories
· Health/Science
· Tobacco Control
· Smokefree Policies
· Tax
non-USA, by Country
· China
· Hong Kong
|
The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 26 March 2010
Jump to full article: The Lancet, 2010-03-26
Author: Jeffrey P Koplan aEmail Address, Wang Ke An b, Ronald MK Lam c
Intro: China has begun to engage in tobacco control through activities by the Ministry of Health, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and non-governmental organisations, along with external funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bloomberg Initiative. China was a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and is committed to its enforcement. Nevertheless, the country faces an immense public health challenge and is at an early stage of effectively addressing the tobacco threat.
A bright spot for tobacco control can be found in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China. For more than 20 years, Hong Kong has sought to diminish the health burden of tobacco use, and has been remarkably successful. . . .
Trends in tobacco use in Hong Kong reflect the increasing range of elements and vigour of the region's control programme. Smoking prevalence in Hong Kong fell progressively from 23·3% in 1982 to 11·8% in 2008. However, challenges remain to be tackled, such as the rise in smoking among young people—from an average of nine cigarettes daily in 2005, to 11 in 2008—and the fairly static prevalence of female smokers during the past decade.9 Hong Kong has shown that an effective large-scale tobacco-control programme, promoted with adequate resources over many years, can shatter misconceptions about tobacco, change the social norm, and yield huge benefits, including a healthier population and economic savings. These efforts can serve as a useful best-practice example for China and other nations.
Jump to full article » |