China has 15 million Underaged Smokers
There are 15 million underage smoklers in the country. According to a Health Ministry report, around 40 million of the country’s 130 million teenagers aged between 13 and 18 had tried smoking. It said that between 66 and 88% of those who had tried smoking had tried tobacco products has smoked their first whole cigarette by the time they turned 13 - a 15% point increase from 1998.
China has about 350 million smokers, nearly a quarter of its population and one-third of the world’s smokers according to the official records of China.
The ministry reports said cigarette advertising was partly responsibled for the rising rate of young tobacco addicts because they target the youth by associating smoking with independence and sex appeal. Of course, easy access to cigarettes is also the cause. Though the law prohibits seliing of tobacco product to those under 18, the kids were not refused when making a purchase.
China has taken some steps to curb smoking since 1 May 2008 (even before the World No Tobacco Day), for example, smoking in public places in Beijing is restricted, with restaurants, bars and hotels having to separate smoking and non-smoking areas.
[...] country’s 1.3 billion people smoke regularly, including 50 million teenage smokers, of which 15 millions are underage smokers. With one quarter of it’s population light up regularly, the Healthy Ministry’s [...]
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