WHO demands urgent smoking controls to curb number of deaths
One million deaths a year are blamed on non-communicable diseases related to tobacco use, with warnings of grave economic consequences
The World Health Organisation has called for the urgent introduction of tobacco controls on the mainland to curb non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the biggest cause of deaths in China.
NCDs - chronic problems such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and lung disease - account for 83 per cent of deaths on the mainland and smoking is a major risk factor.
The WHO says tobacco is responsible for one million deaths on the mainland every year and a quarter of the men who die from tobacco-related NCDs are younger than 60.
"This has major economic implications for an ageing society such as China," Michael O'Leary, WHO's representative in China, said yesterday. "But unfortunately the tobacco epidemic is getting worse, not better and that deserves urgent attention now."
Dr Robert Beaglehole, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said: "The important issue here is with the ageing population there will be a lot of people with NCDs, so the cost of treatment is a big burden. It can drag the family into poverty.
"Another challenge is people are often living with not one but multiple NCDs."
Last month, the WHO released nine global voluntary targets for the prevention and control of NCDs, such as combating premature mortality from NCDs, alcohol and tobacco use.