Lung Cancer Experts Call for Action on Tobacco
Over the weekend, experts at the annual North-South Lung Cancer Summit in Beijing warned that China could have more than 1 million lung cancer patients by 2025. Despite mounting concern about health hazards from air pollution, however, smoking was identified as the primary culprit.
Experts at the forum blamed the prevalent smoking in China as the main contributor of the mounting lung cancer rate. The official Xinhua news agency has reported earlier that 87 per cent of lung cancer deaths were caused by smoking or second-hand smoke.
China is by far the world’s largest tobacco consumer and producer. It has a smoking population of 350 million, more than the entire population of the United States. Some 1.7 trillion cigarettes are made in China every year, according to the Beijing Times.
Experts warned smoking-related deaths could hit two million by 2025 if no concrete efforts were made to step up control of smoking, and that number could jump to three million by 2050.
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