A study in the medical journal The Lancet says that one in three of all the young men in China are likely to die from tobacco. It also says that this high rate can be reduced if the men quit smoking.
The research involves two studies conducted 15 years apart that included hundreds of thousands of people. These studies show that two-thirds of the young men in China start to smoke, usually starting before age 20, and that half of those will eventually be killed by tobacco unless they stop smoking. The number of tobacco deaths in China, mostly men, was 1 million in 2010 and will hit 2 million by 2030 if this trend continue. This research shows that the number of young men smoking in China has increased, and the percentage of all male deaths in China that can be attributed to smoking is rising
The studies were conducted by researchers from Oxford University, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control
In developed countries, the rates of smoking rates have dropped significantly among men. In the United States, about 20% of adult men and 15% of women smoke. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking causes about one of every five deaths.
Globally, tobacco kills up to half of the people who use it. More than 5 million deaths each year result from tobacco use, according to the World Health Organization.
As more people in China start to smoke cigarettes at younger ages, researchers expect the proportion of male deaths attributed to smoking will increase. Another issue is that more young Chinese woman are smoking.
But researchers say this trend can be slowed or turned around if smokers quit. But tobacco is an important source of revenue for the Chinese government. In the past, government efforts to reduce tobacco use have been compromised. Smoking is an ingrained practice in China, which makes it harder to people to stop smoking.