At present, the cigarette packs come with a written warning in the smallest font size, which says, “Smoking is harmful to your health." A survey conducted last year by the National Tobacco Control office (NTCO) showed that even after the written warning, 70 percent of smokers are still ignorant or numb to the warning.
A survey released on Monday by Sohu.com showed that 90 percent of the 16,521 people polled in 20 provinces reported that they would "stop buying cigarettes and sending them as gifts" if the packets came with graphic picture warnings, Yang Gonghuan said.
On the same day, the director of the NTCO and vice director with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yang Gonghuan, was quoted as saying on the portal, "An effective warning is very important."
Another survey conducted by the Sohu.com, the official website of the effort, a part of the campaign, called "Toward a Smoke-Free China" project, found that nearly 34 percent of respondents said that the new cigarette packs, which come with warning notes on the front and the back instead of the sides have raised their awareness on the dangers of smoking.
Yang said that every year nearly 8.4 million people die in China, among whom 12 percent or 1 million Chinese die of smoking related deaths such as lung cancer
define, throat cancer, brain stroke, coronary heart disease and tuberculosis (TB).
Adding further Yang said, "As smokers are becoming younger, this percentage will soar to 33 percent by 2050. That means about half of the male smokers shall die of smoking-related diseases."
Sohu.com has started collecting online signatures and opinions, which will be presented to legislators before they meet in March for their annual full meeting to call for more effective tobacco control efforts. By 6 pm yesterday, more than 5,400 netizens voted on Sohu.com to support the petition.
Post new comment