China pressurized by anti-tobacco lobby

China could prevent nearly 13 million tobacco-related deaths by 2050 by fully implementing a set of neglected anti-smoking policies it had already agreed to, researchers said on Wednesday.

The estimated number of lives saved would result from a smoking rate 40 per cent lower than that projected on current trends, according to a story in the Intern Daily quoting a paper published in the British Medical Journal.

Without any change, it said, China risked suffering more than 50 million deaths attributed to tobacco between 2012 and 2050.

But the toll could be reduced by more than a fifth through measures that included higher tobacco taxes, legislating for smoke-free areas and stricter advertising bans.

‘The consequences of inaction are considerable,’ warned the researchers, who used computer modelling to predict the potential health benefits of a set of policies China had agreed to when it joined the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003.