Cigarette Ads Blamed for Increase in Young SmokersCigarette advertisements are to blame for the increasing number of young smokers in China, said an official with the committee for smoking-control among youngsters in Chongqing Municipality.Fan Honglian said that teenagers are lured by the sexy cigarette ads and start to smoke unaware of the fact that smoking can cause disease. Statistics show that 70 percent of the 30 million Chongqing residents are smokers, including a great number of young people. Zhang Fei, a middle school student, said that "a man who is smoking looks very cool." While Yang Tao, a girl student, said smoking makes women attractive. A professor with Chongqing University said this way of thinking comes from movies and TV. A survey released by the China Consumers Association earlier this year shows that China has 322 million smokers, and by 2005, the death toll from smoking will reach two million. The number of young smokers is on the rise, said the association. The local government invested 200,000 yuan to take down 320 cigarette billboard ads in the downtown area. It also issued a regulation banning smoking in public places in 1998. |
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