Smoking kills - but few aware

One-third of doctors in the country do not know smoking causes coronary heart disease, and nearly four in five do not know passive smoking can cause sudden infant death syndrome, a report revealed yesterday.

Also, three in five smokers do not know that smoking causes heart disease, and four in five do not know it could lead to a stroke, the national tobacco control office of the Ministry of Health said in the report.

The figures have not changed much since 2002 and "the country faces an extremely difficult situation in tobacco control", Yang Gonghuan, director of the office, said as she released the report to mark yesterday's World No Tobacco Day.