Department of Education. Excerpt from the “And Down Will Come Baby” documentary. “And Down Will Come Baby” is a video about the effects of exposure to alcohol and other drugs on the fetus during pregnancy. Creative Commons license: Public Domain
As public health leaders try to curtail smoking among adults, new data show the problem starts young. Popular students in middle school and high school have a higher risk of smoking than other children, according to a series of studies conducted over 10 years. Elizabeth Lee has more details from Los Angeles.
Industry experts say the tobacco industry’s legal challenge to new graphic warning labels may not hold up in court, but it could mean years before the new labels appear, and could save cigarette makers millions of dollars. (Aug. 18, 2011)
Little hope of Chinese smoking ban success
May 1, 2011
China has banned smoking in enclosed public spaces but in a country where the habit is so ingrained in the culture there is little expectation that it will have much effect.
There has been no campaign to publicise the ban, nor is it clear who will enforce it.
A third of the world’s smokers live in China, that is 350-million people. The country produces nearly half of the cigarettes on the planet.
More than a million people die in China from tobacco related disease and public health experts believe that could triple by the year 2030.
State tobacco firms’ profits stand in way of China smoking ban
May 31, 2010
China’s health ministry has finally banned smoking in hospitals – seen as long overdue – but a promised national ban on smoking in public places has yet to become reality because the health ministry is up against state-run tobacco firms which chalk up billions of dollars in profits.
Some 300 million Chinese smokers consume a third of the world’s cigarettes, while a million of them die each year from smoking-related illnesses.
Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan tracked down some of China’s smokers.
China, the country with the most smokers in the world, has banned people from lighting up in indoor public spaces. Officials have not said what penalties there will be, raising questions about its enforcement.
The Australian government is also increasing the pressure on smokers, with new controls that are proving controversial.
Smokers in China who like to light up in public places have about a month to get their puffs in.
The Chinese Ministry of Health has banned smoking in indoor public places beginning May 1st, pleasing media outlets in China- but raising questions in the West about whether residents will brush off the idea once again. (Video from ABC News)
AFRICA
