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China lights up at record rates
From Lisa Rose Weaver
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Smokers in the world's largest tobacco market know cigarettes are bad for them and they know they are addicted, but that doesn't seem to be slowing the rate at which Chinese are lighting up. China is a nation of smokers. In 2001 China accounted for more than 40 percent of world consumption. Tax revenue from cigarette producers make the industry the single largest contributor to government coffers -- adding up to about 10 percent of all state revenue. "The lesson is that China is like other countries in having very complex competing interests around tobacco," says David Parker of UNICEF. On the state tobacco monopoly's website the messages are mixed. Alongside health warnings are articles that describe how chic it is for young women to light up. Some 320 million people in China smoke -- that's equal to the smoking population of all developed countries combined. Most of China's smokers are men -- and most of them, once they start, never quit. That is why anti-smoking efforts try to target people before they start. Health education addresses the topic in schools in the hope that young people take an anti-smoking message home and get their older relatives to quit. But it is unclear how well health education is working. "The surveys all show that 85 percent or more young people know the health risks of smoking. Yet there's still smoking that goes on, that starts," comments Parker. Class actionThere is a gradual shift in Chinese society toward more awareness of the risks -- the most overt forms of advertising have been banned. And in 2001 a Chinese law firm filed the first class action lawsuit against the state tobacco monopoly for aiming advertisements on its Web site toward youth and failing to include health warnings. The court rejected the case for lack of evidence. But the Web site responded to the pressure and has now including a warning -- "Do not click here if you're under 18". Examples of progress, though, are the exception. Meanwhile consumption increases and there is every indication that China's deadliest and most profitable industry will remain.
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