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Asia Minute: China’s Smoking Problem

Ernie / Flickr
Ernie / Flickr

Hawai‘i is one of the most aggressive states when it comes to restricting smoking. Earlier this year, Hawai‘i became the first state to raise the smoking age to 21, and smoking at beaches and other parks has been banned in recent years. But in one growing Asian nation, efforts to cut back on smoking are going the other way. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

The World Health Organization is concerned China may be backsliding in its campaign against tobacco use. The country’s latest five-year plan called for a complete ban on smoking in public places.

But that action appears to be falling victim to a prime enemy of policy planners: the exception to the rule.  The South China Morning Post quotes multiple sources as saying the latest draft of the smoking law includes exemptions for restaurants, bars, hotels and airports—allowing smoking areas….which would seem to pretty much defeat the purpose of the measure in the first place.

The WHO’s representative in China told the news organization “a law that has so many exceptions can’t be enforced.”  China has the world’s largest collection of smokers.  The WHO puts the number at about 315 million…with more than twice that number exposed to second-hand smoke on a regular basis.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 28% of Chinese adults are smokers---including a little more than half of all men.  Just last week, a new report found the national smoking rate in the United States fell by the most in 20 years in 2015….to 15% of all adults.

Fifty years ago, smokers made up roughly 42% of America’s adult population.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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