No butts about it, youth and women lighting up

Ti Gong

The number of young people and women who smoke is on the rise in Shanghai, an official with the city's health promotion commission told the Jiefang Health Forum at Ruijin Hospital on Tuesday.

Wu Fan said the popularization of new tobacco and smoking products such as e-cigarettes contributed to the trend.

In 2017, 2.3 percent more people aged from 25 to 44 were smoking than in 2016, and the number of women smoking that year grew 50 percent, Wu said.

“The aerosol produced by e-cigarettes is harmful to people’s health, and the carbonyl compounds such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde produced by heating the e-liquid are known to be carcinogens,” he said.

Meanwhile, smoking-control efforts since the first ban was introduced in 2010 are having an effect. 

Smoking in all indoor venues was banned on March 1, 2017.

At the end of last year, inspectors found no smoking tools in 93.7 percent, no smoking rooms in 98 percent and no cigarette butts in 88.5 percent of indoor venues, while the smoking rate in indoor venues in general had dropped to 15.4 percent, according to the government.

However, Wu said smoking was still frequent at entertainment venues and restaurants, especially in private rooms.

The government will keep enforcing the smoking ban, focusing on the most vulnerable and key venues, and have volunteers play a bigger role in the effort, Wu said.

Other speakers at the forum included Zhou Jianping, who works at a clinic at Ruijin Hospital helping people quit smoking, and Gong Yi, a doctor of the respiratory department at Huashan Hospital.

Zhou talked about the latest trends in smoking control and outlined the many ways and means for people to get rid of the habit. 

Gong told the forum that smokers would be more willing to quit if medicines used for the purpose were covered by medical insurance.