tobbocco

Policy

There are already various policies which are implemented in China for reducing the use of tobacco but they are not very efficient and government has to pose more and strict laws, regulation to help the cause. The policies are that company can make the advertisement but can be done by advertising of affiliated companies with the same name as tobacco brands. Law has been passed by the congress of China for managing the manufacturing of tobacco products and to improve its quality. There is a license system in China and in this system company has to show the percentage of tar yield and health warning. By Joining the WHO convention now China has to follow certain tobacco control policies like health warning and general warning on products, check regularly the use of tobacco in public, tax on products and treatment of the diseases caused by smoking. China has increased the tax on tobacco products. But there is much to be done because about fifty percent of the Chinese man smokes. Most of the tobacco manufacturing companies in China are state owned and China is world largest manufacturer of tobacco. Only smoking in public places has been legislated though there were many proposals to ban the smoking in other places as well. The ban imposed on advertising is also poorly implemented as compared to other countries in the world. In the latest report of united nation it has been clearly mentioned there is a huge scope of improvement in China to improve the implementation of tobacco control. Smoking is very serious problem and can cause various life endangering diseases. This will cause a serious health problem in china in future which will affect the Chinese population adversely. Not only common people but it will cause affect on economy of china as well because government will have to increase its budget on health in future. Main factors which affects on the impact on policies can be narrowed down to two first is that the huge population of china is moving from rural parts to cities or urban areas. In last twenty years huge percentage of people has been moving to cities and there is increase of 28%. Another factor is knowledge of the people about the harmful effect of use of tobacco. In china there has been no serious campaign to stop smoking so that people can have antismoking attitude. The major problems in China are that they have a tobacco monopoly and which is not effective. Plus this monopoly department most of the time is worried about the performance of tobacco industry and also works in the interest of the industry which causes the increase of use of tobacco products .China is taking the positives from the profit it is generating from manufacturing of cigarettes and other products they are concentrating more on the economic side of this production. But they have also to look at the social side of it. To add on to this the tax monopoly is formed by the officials from the government and some from companies which works in the benefits of the industry. Amount of tax government of china is getting is huge that’s the one reason why they are not able to check and reduce the production. There should be huge reforms on the current monopoly of china in tobacco industry and it should be done really fast otherwise china has to face serious health and other social problems in near future. Chinese government should also have to update the existing policy and have to come out with new laws and regulations. More rights should be given to the state and local government so that they can impose the law and can reduce the usage and production of tobacco. More and more healthcare N.G.O should be encouraged in china domestic as well as international so that people will have the knowledge and awareness of harmful effects of smoking in their lives. More check up camps, events should be organized to spread the awareness. China should also have to reform its tax policy and should have to increase the tax to stop the smoking in coming common people. There have to much more strict legislation and laws. More and more smoke free environment should be encouraged in china. More awareness should be spread about passive smoking in common people. Passive smoking is also as dangerous as active smoking and causes same harmful effects. Smoking in public causes harmful effects to other common women and also to even small children’s. More effective bans on tobacco marketing should be implemented and more health warning on the packaging should be provided so that people can have more knowledge about the harmful effect of the smoking. The pictures on packets should be very big and clear message should be there on the package. Government should impose more restriction on access for youth on the usage of tobacco. More studies and surveys should be done by the government to check the current number of smoking. By doing the surveys government can narrow down the number of people and they can further narrow down to age, sex and how frequently people smoke. Government can also break to first time smoker and former smokers. People should be made more aware about the risk associated with smoking and also future risks. By the surveys government can calculate the number deaths by age, sex. Government can also check the smoking status of past smokers and also the number of new smokers added. N.G.O and government should work together to reduce the usage of smoking and they should famous cases and deaths in the campaign so that people can relate more towards it and campaign should be effective. The campaign should also include total number of deaths caused and harmful effects which can be caused by smoking. Mortality rate should be provided in ad campaigns. Government should target more on the youth and especially more on the first timers. It is expected that in next forty years there can be more than fifty millions deaths caused by smoking or related to it. Smoking is decreasing in china for both male and female the absolute number of smokers will increase in coming years and decades. People follow their role models so more campaigns should be done in movies and television. Politicians should also show interest and should take part in the campaigns to stop the production and usage of tobacco. To conclude first thing is that government should form a new policy and that should be free from company representative, more campaigns should be promoted and that to by celebrities and politicians, more tax should be imposed, more surveys should done in regular interval of time to check the status of the people, policy made be more concentrated on the youth and first time smokers, more awareness and check up camps should be held in rural and urban areas, risk and knowledge should be made public to common people. More E-cigarettes and nicotine chew gum should be promoted as an alternative. China should check and reduce the production of tobacco in the country. More areas should be made smoke free in the country to stop smoking. Legislation and law should be perfectly implemented. China has a huge task in front of them and government has to stop seeing tobacco production as profit. Otherwise China will face a serious social and health problems in future.

Reference

http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g1134

http://www.changce.org/en/enproject/583-tobacco-control-under-the-influence-of-tobacco-monopoly-in-china.html

http://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/legislation/country/china/summary

http://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/legislation/compare/smokefree/15

http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/jobs_postings/post/2013_02_policy_dir_china