350 million smokers

Over the years, China tobacco has maintained seven "world firsts": the tobacco planting area is the first; The purchase amount of tobacco leaves is the first; Cigarette production comes first; Cigarette consumption is the first; The number of smokers ranks first in the world; Tobacco profits and taxes first; The number of people who died of smoking-related diseases ranked first. Since 2000, about 1 10,000 people in China have died of smoking-related diseases every year, accounting for one fifth of the global deaths.

Last June, 5438+065438+ 10, a 9-year-old girl in Shandong was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. When she found it, there was water in the right chest, a lump in the lung, and cancer cells in the lung, pleura and mediastinal lymph nodes metastasized, and the treatment was hopeless.

The incident caused a great shock in the domestic medical anti-cancer field. Yang Xiujun, director of the Radiology Department of Shanghai Eighth People's Hospital and member of the professional committee of minimally invasive tumor treatment of China Anti-Cancer Association, mentioned this case to China Business News. He said that it was later verified that the child's father had been drinking for many years and could smoke two packs of cigarettes every day, and he never avoided it in front of the children. I didn't give up smoking even though my wife was pregnant. "Children get lung cancer because of passive smoking every day."

According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health on May 29th, there are 350 million smokers and 540 million "passive" smokers in China, including children under 5 years old/kloc-0.80 billion, and the number of people who die from passive smoking has exceeded/kloc-0.80 billion every year.

May 3 1 this year is the 20th World No Tobacco Day, with the theme of "creating a smoke-free environment". However, "smoke-free environment" is a decade-long tragedy in China. An internal research report shows that since 1997, European and American international cigarette giants began to enter the Asian market, especially China, because of the influence of domestic smoking ban policy. However, the pace of tobacco control in China lags far behind that in Europe and America.

Smoking and poverty

The harm of tobacco to health is self-evident, and the role of tobacco in death and disease has been well confirmed. However, the poverty aggravated by tobacco has not been paid enough attention. Limited family resources are consumed on cigarettes instead of food and other necessary expenses, such as education and nutrition. The expenditure of poor families on cigarettes (accounting for 4%~5% of their total disposable income) has a very high opportunity cost, which wastes valuable resources that should meet basic needs such as food.

As early as 1995, the eighth "World No Tobacco Day", tobacco control and poverty reduction have been put forward as themes. According to the information provided by patriotic health campaign committee at that time, China ranked first in the world in tobacco production, sales and the number of smokers, and the economic income generated by tobacco accounted for a large proportion of the national fiscal revenue.

In May 2003, the World Health Organization 192 member countries finally adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), and China was one of them. Member States are committed to addressing the public health challenges posed by tobacco, and are determined to address key issues such as tobacco prices and taxes, tobacco and poverty, cross-border smuggling, tobacco advertising and promotion, and the right to clean indoor air.

The report of the World Health Organization shows that the phenomenon that tobacco cultivation and consumption increase poverty has been ignored. "Although tobacco use in many high-income countries has been declining in recent years, it is rising sharply in low-and middle-income countries."

75% of global smokers are in developing countries, and about 60% of global cigarette consumption (5.7 trillion cigarettes) is sucked away every year. This in itself confirms the necessity of comprehensive tobacco control. However, it must be noted that the relationship between tobacco use and its related disease burden is inclined to some extent. In other words, the poor are more inclined to use tobacco than the rich, and there are similar situations in education and socio-economic status.

Professor Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and vice president of China Tobacco Control Association, once said in the media that many people failed to feel the harm of tobacco to health because the role of tobacco did not happen immediately. At present, the average life expectancy of smokers in China is 4.6 years less than that of the general population, and each person works two years less on average, creating much less labor value. However, according to the current smoking pattern, the number of smokers will increase to 436,543.8+billion by 2030, and nearly 2 million people will die from diseases caused by smoking every year from 2025.

Yang Gonghuan said that tobacco use has led to an increase in medical expenses. At present, the growth rate of medical expenses is much higher than the growth rate of profits and taxes in the tobacco industry. If the number of diseases and deaths attributed to tobacco is 33% in 2025, the medical expenses consumed alone will exceed the profits created by the tobacco industry for the country. If other indirect costs caused by diseases are added, the economic value brought by tobacco can only be offset by direct medical expenses and lost working years. This does not include other economic losses caused by tobacco consumption, such as fires.

International cigarette giants secretly fought against China

Britain has been gradually tightening restrictions on cigarette advertising. 1996 passed a law that banned tobacco advertisements in movies and TV programs for the first time, and required all cigarettes sold to be marked with the words "Smoking is harmful to health".

Britain has been raising tobacco taxes since the 1970s. Especially after 1998, the tobacco tax in Britain increased by 5% on average every year.

According to relevant statistics, due to various measures to control and ban smoking, the sales of British tobacco giants in Britain have also gradually declined.

According to a research report obtained by the reporter, some big British tobacco giants began to target Asia, especially China, due to the great squeeze on local sales.

This phenomenon also occurs in the United States. Dr. Ye Dongsheng from the National Institutes of Health told reporters that the profits of American tobacco companies are limited at present because of the increasing consumption tax and tobacco control policies in the country.

Doctors say that the most profitable place for American tobacco companies is not at home, but in China. Many organizations in the United States are also constantly putting pressure on the China government, hoping to take the opportunity of the Olympic Games to vigorously promote smoking ban in China.

In addition to normal channels, smuggled cigarettes sold to China from abroad are immeasurable. Dr Kelley Lee of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Dr JeffCollin of Edinburgh University studied a large number of internal documents that British American Tobacco Company was forced to publish because of several years of lawsuits. According to the latest research data, in 2003 and 2005, British American Tobacco's sales to China were 50 times of China's total official imports. This huge gap has always been difficult for British American Tobacco to explain.

Internal documents also admit that the vast majority of tobacco products exported to China and Hongkong are used to supply the smuggling market in China. "Obviously, in the past 20 years, smuggled cigarettes have made huge profits and become part of British American Tobacco's business in China. Originally used as a way to circumvent the strict restrictions of China market, it has now become a source of rolling income. Smuggling is used to enter the market and compete with other brands, and its pricing and supply management are very cautious. " (See "Disclosure of Internal Documents: British American Tobacco Smuggles a Large Number of Cigarettes to China" reported by this newspaper on July 18, 2006)

Dr Li of the report also told this reporter that after long-term research, Asia, especially China, has become the largest market for British American tobacco.

In addition, the reporter also learned that tobacco companies have also launched "anti-tobacco control" actions due to WHO's global tobacco control actions. A number of internal documents of tobacco companies disclosed in the United States show that tobacco companies are trying to discredit WHO and cut its budget.

According to overseas media reports, a tobacco giant in the United States had planned to organize a counterattack: secretly monitoring the no-smoking meeting and obtaining confidential information; Convince the United Nations Agricultural Organization that tobacco control will reduce the income of poor tobacco-growing countries and hurt the poor.

According to the WHO survey, these tobacco companies designed 26 action plans, including sabotaging 1992 "Cigarettes and Health" meeting and sending specially trained journalists to intimidate the participants; Organize spies to enter WHO, monitor the trend of smoking ban and steal confidential documents.

To this end, WHO warned that if the current situation is not fundamentally changed, 654.38+0 billion people will die of tobacco every year in 30 years, 70% of them will be in developing countries.

According to foreign reports, the World Health Organization plans to provide expertise and advice to countries that take tobacco companies to court for smoking-related deaths and diseases, and encourage developing countries to support and prosecute large tobacco companies.

National tobacco control is weak.

Over the years, China tobacco has maintained seven "world firsts": the tobacco planting area is the first; The purchase amount of tobacco leaves is the first; Cigarette production comes first; Cigarette consumption is the first; The number of smokers ranks first in the world; Tobacco profits and taxes first; The number of deaths from smoking-related diseases ranks first. Since 2000, about 1 10,000 people have died of smoking-related diseases in China every year, accounting for one fifth of the global deaths.

Zhang Yifang, former vice president of China Tobacco Control Association, told this reporter that tobacco control in China was good before 2000, with the highest peak of 1997, and has been declining since then. "One reason is that the competent authorities are not active, and the decision-making level lacks a group of people who are enthusiastic about tobacco control."

He said that the China government has joined the Convention, but its actions are not enough. Especially in trademarks and slogans, the Convention requires that two-thirds of cigarette cases be labeled with warnings, but China is unmoved. This requires full implementation before 2008.

The Convention also requires that the smoking rate be reduced, but China has always been in the top few, even increasing year by year. At present, the smoking rate is 40% and that of men is 70%.

According to a report published by the World Health Organization, China is the only country in the world where the smoking rate is rising.

According to a research report obtained by the reporter, as early as 200 1 year, a report of the World Health Organization on cardiovascular risk factors (Trends of Coronary Risk Factors in the Who Monica Project) collected the data of 38 people smoking in 2 1 country in recent 10 years. Among men aged 35-64, only one country and region has a significant increase in smoking rate, and it is far ahead. This is a sample population from Beijing, China.

Zhang Yifang said that 1990 reported the Law on the Control of Smoking Hazards to the State Bureau of Legal Affairs, but the other party said that there were already relevant laws, so it was not approved. "China's laws on tobacco control are very backward, but the contents of tobacco control are contained in Section 18 to Section 19 of Chapter III of the Tobacco Monopoly Law, which has become an excuse for some departments not to continue legislation. In fact, the contents of tobacco control in the Tobacco Monopoly Law are also somewhat neither fish nor fowl. The Tobacco Monopoly Law has become a cover, making it impossible to introduce a real tobacco control law. "

In addition, he said, China has not done enough in smokeless advertising, and all media in various places turn a blind eye to their own interests.

"At present, there are many shortcomings in the current legislative situation of banning smoking in public places in China. More than half of the cities above the prefecture level still have blank tobacco control laws and regulations, and the places where smoking is prohibited are relatively limited. The contents of laws and regulations are vague and the operability is not strong. " Wang Longde, Vice Minister of Health, said.

Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and vice president of China Tobacco Control Association, said in an interview with China Business News that China's tobacco control started very late, and it should have started from 1990. Although it has been at the level of expert tobacco control, it was not until after 1999 that China negotiated to join the framework convention that it began to enter the level of government tobacco control.

She said that at present, China should be advancing from expert tobacco control to government tobacco control, and has not yet achieved national tobacco control. The road to tobacco control is really long.

However, she does not agree with some experts that tobacco control in China has regressed. "Since 2003, the government has not only intervened, but also led the smoking cessation work in China. I believe that with everyone's efforts, after China joins the Framework Convention, the pace of tobacco control will be faster. "