BEIJING: The Lancet medical journal research report said one in three of all the young men in China are likely to die from smoking and the number could fall if only the men quit this habit.
The studies were conducted by researchers of Oxford University, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Chinese Center for Disease Control which show that two-thirds of the young men in China start smoking mostly before age 20, and that half of those would eventually be killed by tobacco unless they stop permanently.
The research, involving two studies 15 years apart and including hundreds of thousands of people, says the number of tobacco deaths, mostly among men, reached 1 million by 2010 and would hit 2 million by 2030, if current trends continue.
But researchers say the trends could be stemmed if the smokers quit.
‘The key to avoid this huge wave of deaths is cessation, and if you are a young man, don’t start,’ said co-author of the report Richard Peto of the University of Oxford.
Smoking rates have dropped significantly among men in developed countries. In the United States, about 20 percent the adult men smoke and 15 percent of women do, and cigarette smoking causes about one of every five deaths, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
