Over 13 % of kids between the ages of 12 and 18 in Shanghai have lighted up and practically 4 % of them are cigarette users, based on a research led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s public health school.
The research also discovered that there was an increasing number of girls consuming tobacco products.
Prior to World No Tobacco Day, native health gurus are calling for children to be informed about the hazards of cigarette use and recommending regulations on cigarette promotion and restrictions on their accessibility to tobacco products. The study, covering up about 40,000 students in the city’s schools and universities from 2010 to 2012, examined the occurrence of smoking among youngsters and the key factors that brought them to smoke. He Yaping, the survey chief, stated that youngsters were more likely to start smoking if their classmates or friends lighted up.
Advertising, TV, movies and claims declaring that low-tar cigarettes presented less danger also misinformed children to start smoking. “Shanghai had removed almost all outdoor cigarette advertisements by 2010, however the authorities must do a lot more to decrease smoking such as reducing cigarette sales in stores close to schools, boosting the price of cigarettes and advertising health education,” stated Hu Zhaoming, director of the Shanghai Association on Smoking Control. “Health care staff and teachers ought to be role models in smoking management.” Hu added China should drive smoking control throughout the whole country, where smoking production, sales and smokers constitute over a third of the world total. For instance, in Shanghai, around 35 % of people above 15 years old consume tobacco products. “We are also lobbing regional lawmakers to change the city’s anti-smoking legislation in order to have a full smoking ban in all indoor public places,” he stated.
Shanghai’s anti-smoking regulation, which became effective on March 1, 2010, prohibits cigarette use in 13 types of places like kindergartens, museums and Internet cafes and demands special separate smoking and non-smoking places in entertainment areas, and bigger restaurants and hotels. This weekend, more than 20 couples will take part in a wedding ceremony where they will promise that their weddings will be smoke free.