Nearly 1.1 bln Chinese suffering from smoking

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) — Nearly 1.1 billion Chinese people are either smoking or being exposed to secondhand smoke, an official said Saturday.

About 356 million people above the age of 15 are smokers, while another 738 are passively smoking, said Jiang Yuan, director of Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, reports Xinhua.

Smoking-caused cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases have imposed economic burden of more than 223.7 billion yuan (35.9 billion U.S. dollars) for people at or above the age of 35, she said.

“China has to adopt comprehensive, long-term and effective tobacco-control measures,” she said.

China is mulling a ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products, according to a draft regulation published on the legislative affairs office of the State Council website in November.