CRI听力:Second-hand Smoke Causes over 100,000 Deaths in China Annually: WHO

According to the report, jointly released by the WHO, International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP), around 1 million people die from tobacco-related illnesses in China annually.

And if smoking is uncurbed, that number could rise to some 3 million by 2050.

WHO representative in China Bernhard Schwartlander says smoking is severely affecting Chinese young people.

"Last week, the Lancet medical journal, I'm sure, we have all seen this. It published a new research which shows that of all the young man, below the age of 20, your life in China right now, as many as one in three young men in China living today right now, they may die from tobacco-related illnesses, I'm shocked by this figure."

The report finds that numerous Chinese people are suffering from the effects of second-hand smoke.

740 million non-smokers in China, including 182 million children, are being exposed to second-hand smoke at least one day in a week.

People can be protected from second-hand smoke only when public places are 100 percent smoke-free.

Last year, Beijing adopted the strongest smoke-free law in China.

It requires all indoor places to be 100 percent smoke-free.

Head of the general office of the Beijing patriotic health campaign committee Liu Zejun says the law is taking effect.

"A report by Chinese Association on Tobacco Control says that people support this kind of laws. They are satisfied with the changes in public places. The situation in a 100-meter radius of schools is also changing. Good results will come out gradually."

China is the world's largest tobacco-producing and consuming country, with more than 350 million smokers.

The Chinese government has been making increasing efforts to reinforce anti-tobacco publicity and curb rampant tobacco use nationwide.

It also raised the wholesale tax rate for cigarettes to 11 percent from 5 percent in May.

Yet only a few provinces and cities have enacted local legislation on public smoking bans, and no special law has been adopted at the national level.

For CRI I'm Xie Cheng.