China, Egypt: It''s A Smoke World, After All

Source from:  St. Joseph (MI) Herald-Palladium  04/08/2013

Tobacco companies aren't going up in a puff of smoke as U.S. markets shrink.

Right now China has more smokers than the United States has people, with more than 350 million smokers, mostly men, according to the World Health Organization. India has 274 million tobacco users, including the most smokeless tobacco users in the world, at 205 million.

Russia has the highest smoking rate among men, at 60.2 percent, and the highest smoking rate among teens.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey estimates that tobacco could kill a billion people around the world in this century.

The Tobacco Atlas estimates that revenue from the global tobacco industry approaches a half trillion U.S. dollars annually. If Big Tobacco were a country, it would have the gross domestic product of countries like Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Venezuela.

The Chinese government has a monopoly on tobacco production and commands 38 percent of the global cigarette market, more than twice that of its nearest competitor, Philip Morris International.

China National Tobacco generated $91.7 billion in revenue and $16 billion in profits in 2010. Students in Chinese elementary schools are subjected to pro-tobacco propaganda. Some messages even equate tobacco use with academic success, according to WHO research.

Tobacco companies even exploit revolution. According to WHO's Global Adult Tobacco Survey, when Hosni Mubarak's government in Egypt was overthrown and smoking regulations fell by the wayside, tobacco companies stepped in to promote smoking as a way to demonstrate newly won freedom.

Tobacco executives insist that they are not recruiting new smokers in developing countries but instead are encouraging smokers to switch to their brands - the same argument used for decades in the United States.

The New York Times reported in 2010 that companies, including Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, fought against limits on ads in Britain, bigger health warnings in South America and higher cigarette taxes in the Philippines and Mexico. The companies are also spending billions on lobbying and marketing campaigns in Africa and Asia.

However, as Forbes magazine notes, as the health care costs of smoking rise, even developing countries are fighting back.

Forbes reports that, starting in June, Russians will no longer be able to smoke in restaurants, and cigarette advertising will be banned.

In 2011 China banned smoking in restaurants, bars and in several other enclosed public spaces, and plans to ban smoking in virtually all public places by 2015.

This is setting up a conflict in the government as it weighs the revenue from the state-run tobacco industry against the health costs of smoking. Most smoking prohibitions in China are ignored, according to news sources.

India banned smoking in most indoor locations in 2008, though enforcement has been lax.

As Charles Sizemore commented in Forbes last month: "There is really no such thing as a 'tobacco friendly' country anymore. Everywhere you look, the noose is getting tighter."

To combat smoking in the developing world, the federal Centers for Disease Control recommend the same efforts that have reduced tobacco use in the United States - curtail exposure to second-hand smoke, offer help to people who want to quit, warn about the dangers of tobacco, enforce bans on advertising and raise taxes on tobacco. Enditem