China's struggle to keep its young from smoking

At the end of a school day in Beijing's Chaoyang District on Wednesday afternoon, several young boys walked out of the gates of a junior high, lighting a cigarette immediately like old smokers.

Asked by Xinhua reporters where they bought the cigarettes, the boys pointed to a convenience store meters from the school gate.

Signs urging "do not sell cigarettes to minors" hang on the wall of the store, but a number of children could be seen reaching deals for packets of fags without being asked for ID.

The store owner doesn't care at all whether they are underage or not. "They could just as easily buy cigarettes at other stores if not at mine, so why not do the business? Anyway, no one is watching," he said.

Similar scenarios play out across China, despite the country banning cigarettes sales to minors and around primary and middle schools.

Some 6.9 percent of Chinese junior school students aged 13 to 15 smoke, and 80.5 percent of them were not refused when attempting to buy cigarettes over the past 30 days, according to a report issued on Wednesday, in the run-up to Sunday's International Children's Day.

Over 64 percent of students reported that cigarettes can be bought near their schools, said the report by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP).

The ban on underage sales seems just nominal.

Those who sell cigarettes to the young or around schools must be seriously punished to help children resist the temptation of tobacco, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman with the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Relevant laws must be fully implemented and their effect must be ensured. If these laws and rules are out of fashion, new ones must be drafted as soon as possible, said Mao.

A nation of smokers

As the world's largest cigarette producer and consumer, China has 300 million smokers, with at least 740 million nonsmokers regularly exposed to secondhand smoke, including 180 million children.

In an environment with such a solid smoking culture, children tend to become smokers subconsciously.

More than half of the students surveyed said that they had seen people smoking in schools in the past month, while 13.3 percent said they see teachers smoking everyday at school, though they are not allowed to do so.

Moreover, 60 percent of the surveyed responded that at least one of their parents smoke and 70 percent have watched scenes involving smoking in films and TV dramas in the past month.

It is highly likely that children will become smokers if their parents smoke, according to the CCDCP researcher Xiao Lin. If kids' TV idols smoke, their acceptance to smoking will be 16 times higher, Xiao said.

In China, cigarette advertising is banned on TV, but still a large number of the students surveyed saw cigarette ads outdoors or on the Internet.

"Parents, teachers and idols are all smoking, which lets the children feel that smoking is not a bad thing. That's seriously misleading," added Xiao.

According to the report, 13 percent of the respondents think that smoking makes young people more attractive. Nearly 7 percent said they would probably smoke a cigarette in the next 12 months.

Smoking ban dilemma

In China, about 1.4 million people die of cigarette-related diseases every year, and that number is predicted to reach three million by 2050 if no sound measures are adopted to control Chinese people's puffing on nicotine.

In 2003, China signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. But it has been criticized for failing to fulfill the promise of reducing use of tobacco, a backup for the nation's fast-inflating economy.

China's tobacco industry generated a huge 956 billion yuan (154.9 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits in 2013, up 10.5 percent year on year.

Dr Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO representative in China, has advised China to raise taxes on tobacco products.

"Policy makers should substantially increase taxes on tobacco, while ensuring that the increase is passed on to the retail price of tobacco products," he said, adding it is the single most effective measure authorities can take to reduce death, disease, and future economic harm caused by tobacco.

In fact, the Chinese government is making increasing efforts to reinforce anti-tobacco publicity and curb rampant tobacco use nationwide.

It has made a public smoking ban one of its goals for the 2011-2015 period. Some cities have already enacted legislation on smoking in public places.

Since the end of last year, officials have not been allowed to smoke in public areas, including schools, hospitals, sports venues and on public transport. A rule meted out by the Ministry of Education earlier this year also ordered a thorough ban of smoking within primary and middle schools, kindergartens and secondary vocational schools.

CCDCP deputy head Liang Xiaofeng suggested that the government can also do more to help the young give up smoking, such as nurturing more professionals or medical workers specializing in smoking-cessation.

According to the report, 72.1 percent of the student smokers want to quit, but only 11.4 percent of them had ever got help from professionals.

"It may take a long time, considering that many schools do not even have a school doctor," said Liang.