May 31, 2005 marked the 18th Annual World No-Tobacco Day. This year, the theme is “Health Professionals and Smoking Control.” Based on statistics from the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 41 percent of male doctors smoke and 40 percent of doctors are unaware that tuberculosis is related to smoking. In order to find out more about the perception of healthcare workers being smokers, a study was conducted between September and November 2004, targeting hospital doctors from six Chinese cities.

Findings revealed that currently 23.1 percent of doctors smoke daily. The smoking rates differ according to region, with the Northern region having a higher proportion compared to the South.

Also, findings revealed that though 95.1 percent of doctors are aware that smoking may result in lung cancer, they are not as well-informed about the association of smoking with other diseases. For instance, in China, two million people die of brain and cardiovascular diseases yearly. This accounts for 40 percent of the total disease mortality rate. However, 23.9 percent of physicians are not aware that smoking is a risk factor in coronary disease and 40 percent of doctors are unaware that smoking can be a major trigger to tuberculosis. Besides this, research has shown that smokers are five times more likely to suffer from impotence compared to non-smokers. However, only 50 percent of doctors are aware that smoking is one of the causative factors of impotence.

It has been found that advanced countries have been successful in reducing smoking rates, largely because healthcare workers have become role models in anti-smoking efforts. In the United States, for example, the current smoking rate for the entire population is 25 percent, while the figure among healthcare workers is only 9 percent. In the UK, the figure has fallen from 70 percent in the 1940s to the current rate of 2 percent.

According to a survey, currently there are 400 million smokers in China. Among Chinese men age 15 years and above, 60 percent are smokers. An estimate by the World Health Organization calculates that every year smoking accounts for one million deaths in China. If current smoking habits are maintained, it is estimated that by 2050, the annual mortality rate from smoking in China will increase to three million. The projected mortality rate from smoking among middle-aged people is one in three.

According to a survey conducted among students of Shenyang Middle School, the smoking rate among senior middle school male students is 50 percent. In certain vocational middle schools, the figure can be as high as 90 percent. Some students see smoking as a way of gaining peer acceptance. Of particular concern is that some parents appear to disregard this behavior in their children.

Some people feel that a major source of China’s smoking tendencies lies in government hypocrisy. Although cigarette packs carry health warnings, the media conveys messages that associate smoking with power and wealth. The impression is gained that smokers can afford to be more extravagant and hence, teenagers can be misled into smoking.