Tobacco plan up in smoke
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Widespread resistance by tobacco industry interest groups to national anti-smoking drives has contributed to China's failure to honor its international commitments to tackle tobacco use, a report revealed Thursday.
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As the world's largest cigarettes producer and home to some 300 million smokers, China has fallen short of its tobacco-control commitment to the international community. |
Tobacco could claim as many as 3.5 million Chinese lives in 2030 alone if no steps are taken, according to "Tobacco Control and China's Future," a 180-page document compiled by more than 60 experts from home and abroad.
As the world's largest cigarettes producer and home to some 300 million smokers, China has fallen short of its tobacco-control commitment to the international community, it said.
According to the World Health Organization's (WTO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Beijing validated back in 2006, China should have adopted a comprehensive ban on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of cigarettes and provided for protection from tobacco smoke on public transport and in both indoor workplaces and public places before Sunday.
Tobacco packages should bear no misleading terms such as "low tar" or "light" and should have mandatory health warnings across no less than 30 percent of the package, the FCTC stipulated.
However, customers in the majority of indoor public places such as restaurants, Internet cafes, as well as trains carriages in China, are free to light up. Tobacco advertising and sponsorship can still largely be seen and heard in the public domain, including on State television.
No officials attended the press conference where the report was released Thursday in Beijing, but it appeared to have angered some of the 200 tobacco control experts there.
"It's disappointing that no officials from any of the eight related ministries have shown up," said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Research Center for Health Development and a co-author of the report.
"The smoke-free campaign can hardly make any progress without legislation, administrative force, or without separating government interests from tobacco enterprises," Wu told the Global Times.
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