Survey exposes teenage smoking risk

About 9.4 million middle school students in China aged 13 to 15 have tried smoking and one-third have become tobacco users, the first nationwide survey on smoking among young people has found.

Among 155,000 junior high school students polled, nearly 20 percent had used tobacco and 6.9 percent became tobacco users, according to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey on China.

The survey covered 188 countries and regions. The China section was funded by the Chinese government, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.