China faces huge costs unless it reduces smoking now: WHO
Premature death and impoverishment only the most visible of the problems smoking will bring to China. In other health news: Google unveils data-collecting device; and what the eyes tell us about emotions
Smoking-related diseases will claim 200 million lives in China this century and impoverish tens of millions, a report has said. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, and the industry provides the government with colossal sums. In 2015, it contributed 1.1 trillion yuan (HK$1.24 trillion) in tax revenues to the central government. But a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the Asian giant will suffer an economic toll if it does not urgently reduce its smoking population.
The paper, “The Bill China Cannot Afford”, estimated that the total annual economic cost of tobacco use in the country in 2014 was 350 billion yuan, up tenfold from 2000. “If nothing is done to reduce [the death rate] and introduce more progressive policies, the consequences could be devastating not just for the health of people across the country, but also for China’s economy as a whole,” WHO China representative Bernhard Schwartlander said.
The calculation includes both the direct costs of treating tobacco-related illness and the indirect costs such as lost work productivity. Rural-to-urban migrants are more likely to be smokers, the report said, adding that they risk descending into poverty when smoking-related medical costs become too great – a reality at odds with the government goal of eradicating poverty nationwide by 2020. The organisations recommended a smoke-free policy across the country akin to laws in Beijing and Shanghai, where smoking is banned in most public places. AFP
