China will have the world's highest number of lung cancer patients at one million a year by 2025 if smoking and pollution are not effectively curbed, experts have warned while citing World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

According to China's national tumor prevention and cure research office, affiliated to the Ministry of Health, the country had 120,000 new lung cancer patients over the past five years. Lung cancer killed more people -- one out of every four -- than any other disease, sources said.

A recent WHO report indicates that smoking is the single, largest avoidable cause of death in the world and currently claims 4.9 million lives a year.

"Smoking and pollution are two major causes of the high rate of lung cancer," Zhi Xiuyi, director of the lung cancer treatment center of the Beijing-based Capital Medical University, told China Daily.

Chinese smokers have surpassed the 350-million mark and account for more than a third of the world's 1.3 billion smokers. Two out of three Chinese men are smokers. It's estimated that the total output of the cigarette industry in 2006 was some 300 billion yuan (US$37 billion).

The deteriorating environment is also contributing to the rising rate of lung cancer in China. Epidemiological investigations have found that the lung cancer rate in industrial and polluted regions is higher than in non-industry areas. 

"Occurrence of lung cancer is closely related with motor vehicle exhausts," Sun Yan, a cancer expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the Life Times.

Zhi said traffic policemen had a higher rate of lung cancer than those in other professions.

Pollution caused by indoor furnishings can also be a factor and experts advise people not to choose materials with harmful chemicals for such household items.  

As many as a third of lung cancer cases can be avoided through preventive efforts, Zhi said.

Experts have called for stricter controls on smoking, especially in public places, and more anti-pollution measures to cut down the rise in the number of lung cancer patients.

The government has moved in that direction in recent times by banning the sale of cigarettes to minors and from vending machines as well as stopping smoking in public places such as cinemas and hospitals.

(China Daily January 4, 2007)