Health experts have called for a smoking ban among medical
workers at an international seminar on cardiovascular diseases in
Beijing. Both Chinese and foreign health experts agreed that the
control of smoking should begin with medical workers.
China has made significant progress in treating cardiovascular
diseases but there is a lot of room for improvement in the early
prevention of diseases and control of smoking is the most important
of all preventative measures, said Hu Dayi, dean of the cardiology
college of Capital Medical University.
"Many medical workers know little about how smoking is harmful
to the heart and the blood vessels, and many of them are smokers
themselves, which has posed serious difficulties to controlling
smoking," Hu said.
According to Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the smoking control
office of the Chinese Disease Control and Prevention, reducing the
number of medical smokers can lead to less other people
smoking.
"Medical workers act as leaders in terms of quitting smoking,"
Jiang said. "A doctor's advice usually plays an important role in
persuading smokers not to stop. But if the doctor himself smokes,
the advice will be taken less seriously," Jiang added.
Andrew Pipe, professor from the University of Ottawa Heart
Institute, said that Canada's experience in smoking control showed
that medical workers had played important roles in helping smokers
to quit and protecting non-smokers from passive smoking.
China has more than 350 million smokers, about a third of the
world's smoking population. Each year, about 700,000 die from
smoking-related diseases.
According to the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, 1.95
trillion cigarettes were sold in China last year, netting more than
159 billion yuan (US$ 20 billion) in tax revenues.
China ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control last
August, an anti-smoking treaty that has been ratified by 110
countries and came into force in 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2006)