World Health Organization urges China to curb smoking rates (WHO, Wu, Linlin)
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On October 11, 2015, The World Health Organization released a press release announcing the results from a study conducted by Oxford University in the UK, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control. The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, calls for urgent action on tobacco control in China. If current smoking rates in China do not change, The Lancet reported, as many as one in three Chinese boys and young men alive will die of a tobacco related death.
According to the study:
- two-thirds of all Chinese men included in the research were smokers
- Chinese men are starting to smoke at a younger age than their fathers and grandfathers
- as a result, smoking will cause about 20% of all adult male deaths in China this decade
- the annual number of deaths in China that are caused by tobacco will rise from about 1 million in 2010 to 2 million in 2030 and 3 million in 2050, unless existing smokers quit – and non-smokers are prevented from starting.