Efforts for final eradication of smoking must start among young people, as it is better not to let them develop this bad habit than to encourage them quit when they have already become addicted.

These measures should include public campaigns to instill an awareness in children that smoking damages not only the health of those who smoke but also passive smokers.

But what is more important are efforts to get rid of bad influences from around schoolchildren as they are at the age when they are likely to imitate others. They follow the examples of their parents, teachers and film or TV stars.

However, it is more difficult to get rid of or even reduce these bad influences than to educate young people, as this involves people from almost all walks of life and requires initiatives from adults in different capacities.

In this respect, when we are talking about eradicating smoking and taking measures to start banning smoking among schoolchildren, we must realize that the root cause lies with adults.

Can we expect our children to do as we say when we continue to smoke? Will schoolchildren trust their teachers when they tell them about the harm of smoking in class but drag hard on cigarettes after class?

On this particular matter, we need responsible parents who do not smoke themselves or at least do not smoke in front of their children, and we also need responsible teachers who do not set a bad example in front of their students.

We also need cooperation from filmmakers and TV program producers, who need to be aware that scenes depicting heroes or heroines smoking should be as few as possible so that youngsters won't learn the bad habit from their screen idols.

Finally, cigarette sellers must be made to abide by the law never to sell cigarettes to children. But investigations suggest that most do sell to minors, and those around high schools even target students as their major source of income.

Stopping selling cigarettes to children not only means denying them access to cigarettes, but also instills in them the notion that it is bad for them to smoke.

(China Daily 04/07/2007 page4)