Teenager Smokers on Rise in ChinaThe number of teenager smokers is on the rise in China, according to a report published in the Beijing-based "Guangming Daily" today.About 22.5 percent of the secondary students have lit up. The average age for students to take up smoking is 10 years old. The figures came from a survey conducted by Beijing University last year among 11,957 students in 186 secondary schools in Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities and Shandong and Guangdong provinces. Most of the teenager smokers buy their cigarettes or get them from others. The report did not mention what factors had caused the increase of young smokers. Paradoxically, 91.8 percent of the teenagers surveyed believe that smoking is harmful to health while 62.9 percent said that smoking should be banned in public places. |
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