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Endangered youth

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-01 07:48

The future lies with the youth, as it does with a healthy world, a world free of tobacco and its killer effect.

Yet we have no reason to feel optimistic about tobacco control among teenagers in China. The number of smokers between the age of 13 and 18 is estimated to be at least 15 million. This population accounts for 11.5 percent of the 130 million in this age group, according to a report released by the country's tobacco control office last year.

At least 40 million teenagers have tried cigarettes, the report says. The number of teenagers who had their first taste of cigarettes before the age of 13 is found to be 15 percent higher than the percentage in the previous investigation. Even worse, half of those youngsters who do not smoke are suffering from second-hand smoke either at home or in public places.

The earlier a smoker quits the habit, the better chance he or she has to extend life expectancy. By the same logic, the earlier the age at which one develops the addiction, the more one will suffer from it.

The number of people who die from smoking-related disease is estimated at more than 1 million every year in the country. The rise in teenage smokers means that this death toll is likely to increase in years to come. It also means a steady increase in medical expenditure for treatment of smoking-related diseases.

Tobacco Health Warnings, as the theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day, which was yesterday, take on a special meaning for China in the battle against the addiction. We do have health warnings on cigarette packets, but only in words, not in pictures. And, it is pictorial warnings which are believed to be more powerful in convincing people of the dangers of smoking.

It is likely that children will be more affected by pictorial health warnings than textual ones. China needs to do a lot more by way of visual illustrations on cigarette packets to impress young minds about the ill effects of smoking.

Apart from that, there is much scope for creative intervention to prevent teenagers or even younger children from picking up the habit.

A survey of 2,000 female high school students in Chongqing municipality in southwestern China has found that 30 percent of them are either smokers or have been smokers. They said that they picked up the habit to emulate some female stars, whose affectations with cigarettes in films or TV soap operas impressed them as being very smart.

It is more important for parents, teachers and adults, particularly smokers, to set a good example for the younger generation, which is in need of role models who do not glamorize smoking.

Pictorial illustrations of the dangers of smoking will be more effective if the warnings are reinforced by role models who can motivate the youth to shun cigarettes.

(China Daily 06/01/2009 page4)