Non-smoking NPC and CPPCC Sessions proposed

Beijing (CNS) –The ineffectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns has seriously affected China's international image, said vice minister of health Huang Jiefu on Wednesday.

Huang advocates a non-smoking environment for the upcoming sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in early March.

Huang challenged public figures to practice what they preach at the kick-off meeting for the project Creating A Non-smoking Environment. He pointed out that despite achieving some success at smoking control in recent years, China is still far from satisfying public expectations.

It is estimated China now has 320 million smokers, accounting for one third of the world's total. Every year about 1.2 million people die of smoking-related diseases.

Almost half of all Chinese male smoke and about 739 million people suffer from second-hand smoke, said Hu Angang, a famous Chinese scholar. He pointed out that from 2002 to 2010, far from seeing a decline in its population of smokers, China has experienced a growth in deaths related to the habit.

Zhao Baige, vice executive president of the Red Cross Society of China, said they started the latest project days before the sessions of the NPC and CPPCC begin, hoping it would arouse and refresh discussions on the issue among attendees.