High prevalence of cigarette smoking among Chinese men indicates an urgent need for smoking prevention

Nov 1 2004

Adopting a westernized lifestyle has spelled disaster for many people in China, where 60 percent of men smoke cigarettes, more than half of women are exposed to secondhand smoke at home and one in four men and women breathe smoke-filled air at work.

Researchers surveyed more than 15,000 Chinese adults. When generalized to the entire population the survey found that more than 147 million men and almost 16 million Chinese women currently smoke. Secondhand smoke was commonplace among those surveyed, with 51.3 percent of women being exposed to such smoke at home, and 27 percent of men and 26 percent of women being exposed to secondhand smoke on the job. Clean indoor air laws have not yet been enacted in China, where smoking is the leading cause of death.

“The high prevalence of cigarette smoking among Chinese men indicates an urgent need for smoking prevention and cessation efforts,” the study’s authors said. “ The large number of men and women being exposed passively to cigarette smoke in their workplace argues for legal prohibition of cigarette smoking in the workplace environment in China.”

[From: “Cigarette Smoke and Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke in China: The International Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Disease in Asia.” Contact: Jiang He, MD, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans.