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January 7th, 2011:

Report: Smoking industry harming economic health

Last updated: January 7, 2011

Source: China Daily

http://www.sendspace.com/file/12j6j8

download the report today from the above link

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2011-01/07/content_11808143.htm

Cost of addiction rising as experts seek efforts to eradicate it

BEIJING – Lost productivity from smoking-related health problems will hamper China’s economic growth, and related costs incurred by smoking far exceed the tobacco industry’s contribution in terms of profits and jobs it generates, an international panel of experts warned on Thursday.

They also warned that China’s addiction to huge revenues from the State-owned tobacco monopoly is hindering anti-smoking measures, potentially costing millions of lives in the country with the world’s largest number of smokers.

The warnings, issued in a report prepared by a group of prominent public health experts and economists, came amid growing calls for the government to give stronger support to tobacco-control measures.

“As the health impact of smoking, including rising heart disease and lung cancer, gradually emerges, unless there is effective government intervention, it will affect China’s overall economic growth due to lost productivity,” said Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

She is also lead author of the report, Tobacco Control and the Future of China, which involved the efforts of 60 experts.

The report attempts to quantify the financial cost to China of smoking. Last year, it cost 61.8 billion yuan ($9.3 billion) more to treat people for smoking-related illnesses and deal with tobacco-related issues such as pollution, than the tobacco industry generated in profits and jobs created, Yang said.

Official data released last month said the tobacco industry made 65.9 billion yuan in profits in the first 11 months of last year, 6.3 percent higher than the previous year.

China is the world’s largest tobacco producing and consuming country, with more than 300 million smokers on the mainland, official statistics showed.

Each year, about 1.2 million people die from smoking-related diseases on the mainland and the figure will increase to 3.5 million by 2030, according to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The report underscores increasing concern that the country’s economic potential will be jeopardized due to escalating medical costs and lost productivity if the government fails to take serious action to combat smoking.

“The report comes at a crucial time in China’s battle against smoking,” said Xu Guihua, deputy director of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.

The report was released days ahead of a Sunday deadline that China will fail to meet as a member of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Measures to be taken before the deadline include banning smoking in public indoor venues as well as a total ban on tobacco-related advertising and sponsorship, Xu said.

The FCTC took effect in China on Jan 9, 2006 as a binding law after being ratified by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. But a huge gap exists between China’s overall tobacco control and the FCTC’s requirements, the report said.

The number of smokers dropped by 0.45 percent annually between 2003 and 2010, compared to 0.9 percent between 1996 and 2002, it said.

Cigarette consumption has seen steady and robust growth, from 589.9 billion in 1978 to about 2.3 trillion in 2009, a year that saw China fail to meet an FCTC deadline on printing warning graphics instead of just slogans on packets of cigarettes.

Hu An’gang, director of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, called the tobacco industry’s obstruction “the prime culprit” behind the failed anti-smoking efforts.

The report highlighted a conflict of interest concerning the State monopoly over the tobacco industry.

The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the agency in charge of the government-initiated tobacco control campaign. This setup allows the tobacco industry to use the government’s authority to promote tobacco production and sales, impede adoption and implementation of tobacco control policies and laws, and publicly conduct activities undermining FCTC implementation, such as marketing tobacco brands in the name of charity, said the report.

Currently, the tobacco industry employs roughly 10 million people and generates more than 7.5 percent of total government revenues, official statistics showed.

“That undermines China’s fundamental goal for sustainable social and economic development as well as people’s basic right to health,” said Zhi Xiuyi, director of the Lung Cancer Treatment Center of Capital Medical University.

“Considering the long-term benefits, the Chinese government should work harder to prevent more deaths from smoking. It’s a major health and economic issue for the nation,” said Jeffrey Koplan, vice-president for global health at the Georgia-based Emory University in the US.

He also urged national legislation on smoking control in China.

The central government should establish a tobacco control bureau under the National Development and Reform Commission to lead China’s battle against tobacco, replacing the current Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the report said.

Smoking Cessation Linked to Happiness, Elevated Moods

Last updated: January 7, 2011

Source: Time

As if you needed another reason to give up smoking for good: Researchers have now determined that successfully quitting is not only linked to greater happiness, but also to elevated moods, contrary to the popular belief that abandoning the habit makes you miserable.

The study, which was conducted at Brown University and published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, evaluated 236 male and female smokers, before and during the process of quitting. After undergoing standardized tests for symptoms of depression, participants were counseled on smoking cessation and given nicotine patches to aid them along the way. Further counseling sessions took place at 2, 8, 16 and 28 weeks after their quit dates, regardless of whether or not participants were still smoking. (More on Time.com: A Single Cigarette Can Raise the Risk of Cancer and Heart Disease)

What researchers found were that those who were able to quit smoking, even for a short time, reported very high spirits during their checkups, while those who failed reported moods that were even darker than when the study began. Those participants who failed right away and never abstained (99 people total) were found to be unhappiest of all the groups, while those who avoided smoking for the whole length of the study reported the highest levels of happiness. (More on Time.com: Study: 99% of Children Living in Apartments May Be Exposed to Secondhand Smoke)

The findings are persuasive, but the methods the investigators used do give reason for pause. All of the 236 subjects surveyed were also heavy drinkers, and when it comes to a study of mood, alcohol is about the most confounding variable imaginable. Lead author Christopher Kahler told Healthland that the use of heavy drinkers was important because this group typically has low rates of success in quitting smoking, and in general, alcohol is often involved when people go back to smoking after quitting the habit. However, he notes that they did not see a correlation between changes in drinking and depressive symptoms, as most participants continued to drink during the course of the study.

Kahler maintains that smokers who are thinking of quitting should feel encouraged by the results of the study, telling Medical New Today:

The assumption has often been that people might smoke because it has antidepressant properties and that if they quit it might unmask a depressive episode. What’s surprising is that at the time when you measure smokers’ mood, even if they’ve only succeeded for a little while, they are already reporting less symptoms of depression.

Just one more reason to follow through with your resolution to quit smoking this year.

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