Cigarette smoking is so widespread in China that the BBC reports that up to one-third of the young men in that country will die from diseases related to smoking.
The prediction was made after experts looked at thousands of deaths in Hong Kong. It also says that China is thought to be the world's largest producer of cigarettes, and that one-third of all the world's cigarettes are smoked in China.
The BBC reports that up to 200 million Chinese men could die over the next three decades, unless the Chinese government takes a more active role in advocating quit-smoking programs.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the efforts of some in China to lobby against tobacco. And although the BBC says that men are much more likely than women to smoke in China, the International Union Against Cancer has warned that Asian women are beginning to smoke in alarming numbers. The American Cancer Society says smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States.
