Shanghai's secondary school students have lowest smoking rate in the nation

One of every 100 students at Shanghai's secondary schools smokes, the lowest rate on the Chinese mainland, local health authorities said on Monday.

The rate takes smoking either cigarettes or e-cigarettes into account, and the percentage of students who have tried smoking is also the lowest.

According to a national survey covering 269,250 secondary school students in all the 31 provinces, municipals and autonomous regions of the Chinese mainland, the cigarette-smoking rate among local secondary school students is 1 percent, with 0.7 percent of middle school students, 0.9 percent of high school students and 2.6 percent of vocational school students.

It is much lower than the national rate of at 4.7 percent, indicating the effects of health education and promotion of the harms of smoking, along with the anti-smoking measures.

About 0.4 percent of local students said they smoke cigarette frequently, and 5.4 percent reported they have tried smoking a cigarette.

In addition, 1.7 percent of Shanghai's secondary school students smoke e-cigarettes. The national rate for smoking e-cigarettes among secondary school students is 3.6 percent.

Shanghai was one of the first group of cities to carry out anti-smoking campaigns and anti-tobacco education among minors. Local health and educational authorities have teamed up on controlling smoking by minors and the establishment of schools as total non-smoking areas, even for adults, and creating a good environment with the participation of schools, families, and society to educate the young to refuse the first cigarette, including e-cigarettes.

The city was also the first in the nation to introduce an anti-smoking law, which bans smoking in all public venues, including e-cigarettes.