Yu Hongxia's consulting room at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital only sees two or three patients in a week. This is quite different to other departments, where patients swarm all day, all year.

Yu's clinic is one of six specialized clinics to help people quit smoking in Beijing, including three that recently opened in May. In 1996, 21 such clinics opened in Beijing, but the number shrunk to three early this year, because of a lack of patients.

Yu attributes that situation to a low level of awareness among Chinese smokers.

"Most Chinese people are not yet aware of the fact that smoking addiction is a chronic disease," said the doctor.

It is estimated that China has a smoking population of 320 million, taking up one third of the total number in the world. Cigarettes are cheap and easy to get in China and there is no apparent pressure in public places to limit smoking.

Besides other health problems smoking causes, an average 1 million Chinese die from lung cancer each year, a result of smoking for 15-20 years. Yu expects the number of smokers to increase because of rising living standards.

"It is not that people don't want to quit," Yu analysed. "There is a false belief in Chinese society that it is unhealthy, and too difficult to quit smoking."

Among all the people who come to Yu for help, 85 percent have successfully quit the habit, according to the doctor.

"Skill is not a problem for Chinese doctors," she said. "The problem is people don't come to us."

Many people believe that they can quit smoking by themselves, but then find it too difficult.

"Quitting smoking is not only a physical process, but also involves psychological and behavioral factors," said Yu.

Another important factor is that many Chinese doctors smoke. In a small-scale investigation in a Chinese hospital, it was found that 50-60 percent of male doctors were smokers, and 90 percent of clinical doctors did not know that the addiction is caused by nicotine dependence.

"Some 75 percent of smokers have contact with doctors," revealed Yu, "which gives them a chance to think smoking really doesn't matter, and so they reject their families' appeals for them to quit."

Nonetheless, Yu noted that there has been an increase in education programs to help people learn about the harmful effects of smoking. Beijing has recently released a no-smoking draft at Olympic venues, which will come into effect on August 8, a year to the opening of 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Yu hopes there will be more money and resources committed to help people quit. She hopes to learn from countries such as the UK, which is quite successful in reducing the number of doctors smoking. And she said that China should set up laws curbing the production of cigarettes, no matter how lucrative it is.

(China Daily 05/30/2007 page14)