Smoking rate falls amid bans, awareness

The smoking rate among people age 15 and older in China fell to 23.2 percent last year, down nearly 5 percentage points from 2010 and almost 1 percentage point from 2022, according to a national study released on Thursday.

Health officials attributed the continued decline to stronger public education campaigns and stricter enforcement of smoking bans in public spaces.

Between 2012 and 2014, the smoking rate among males dropped by 1.4 percentage points to 43.9 percent, while the rate among females decreased by 0.5 percentage point to 1.8 percent.

The smoking rate in rural areas stood at 24.9 percent last year, compared with 20.9 percent in urban areas, according to the study, which was led by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and surveyed nearly 200,000 people.

Meanwhile, 46.5 percent of nonsmokers were exposed to secondhand smoke last year, down from 52.4 percent in 2022. Restaurants, homes and indoor workplaces were the most common places for such exposure.

Guo Yanhong, vice-minister of the National Health Commission, said tobacco control is a key part of China's broader effort to improve public health by 2030.

"There is still a long way ahead to reach the goal of lowering the smoking rate among those age 15 and above to 20 percent by 2030," Guo said during an event in Beijing ahead of World No Tobacco Day, which is observed each year on May 31.

Guo emphasized the importance of educating children and adolescents about the dangers of tobacco to help foster healthy lifestyles and reduce the number of future smokers.

According to the study, 40.1 percent of participants said they had seen tobacco control messages online in the past 30 days, an increase of 5.1 percentage points from 2022.

"Public awareness of the health risks of smoking has risen significantly, with 23.8 percent of respondents recognizing that tobacco use is linked to lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and erectile dysfunction — up 8.2 percentage points from 2022," said Shi Xiaoming, deputy director of the China CDC.

Shi said understanding of the dangers of secondhand smoke has also improved, with 44.2 percent of respondents saying they were aware that it can cause lung cancer, pediatric respiratory illnesses and heart disease — an increase of 7.1 percentage points from 2022.

Notably, 36.4 percent of respondents said they had seen smoking depicted in television shows, videos or movies in the past 30 days — a drop of more than 9 percentage points from 2022.

Shi added that more than one in five smokers had tried to quit, and 3.5 percent of respondents reported using e-cigarettes.

In Beijing, the smoking rate among those age 15 and older dropped from 23.4 percent in 2014 to 19.2 percent last year, following the 2015 implementation of a citywide smoking ban in restaurants, offices and on public transportation.

Xu Xinchao, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, said the number of smokers in the capital has fallen by nearly 700,000, and smoking in public places has become significantly less common.