Smoking ban in China, Asia

[TaiShang]

I think this news deserves to be posted here. To me, what is more interesting than the mistake by the Bank is the preference of a pack of cigarette as a gift. Why not send him an expensive package of renshen tea?

We need those good natured people to live longer, not less.



***

Man returns 1.2 billion yuan mistakenly sent by bank
CRI, January 19, 2017

A man in Changsha, central China's Hunan province has returned about 1.2 billion yuan (175 million USD) mistakenly sent by a bank, Beijing Youth Daily reports.

The bank gave Liu a red envelope with 200 yuan after Liu returned a large sum of money transferred to his account by mistake. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

The man surnamed Liu said that he opened an account at a bank branch of the Rural Commercial Bank in Changsha on January 15th, and later he received a call from the bank asking him to return a large sum of money mistakenly sent by the bank. The bank told him that a new employee mistook Liu's 10-digit account number for a transfer amount and sent 1.2 billion yuan to Liu. Liu forgave the mistake and returned the money to the bank, and in return the bank gave him a packet of cigarettes and a red envelope of 200 yuan (29 USD).

@+4vsgorillas-Apebane

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

I think this news deserves to be posted here. To me, what is more interesting than the mistake by the Bank is the preference of a pack of cigarette as a gift. Why not send him an expensive package of renshen tea?

View attachment 369616


We need those good natured people to live longer, not less.



***

Man returns 1.2 billion yuan mistakenly sent by bank
CRI, January 19, 2017

A man in Changsha, central China's Hunan province has returned about 1.2 billion yuan (175 million USD) mistakenly sent by a bank, Beijing Youth Daily reports.

The bank gave Liu a red envelope with 200 yuan after Liu returned a large sum of money transferred to his account by mistake. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

The man surnamed Liu said that he opened an account at a bank branch of the Rural Commercial Bank in Changsha on January 15th, and later he received a call from the bank asking him to return a large sum of money mistakenly sent by the bank. The bank told him that a new employee mistook Liu's 10-digit account number for a transfer amount and sent 1.2 billion yuan to Liu. Liu forgave the mistake and returned the money to the bank, and in return the bank gave him a packet of cigarettes and a red envelope of 200 yuan (29 USD).

@+4vsgorillas-Apebane

The country should remember that smoking was one of the reasons that brought down the Qing dynasty. Tobacco is not as bad as opium but it is addictive nontheless. It has no advantages whatsoever health wise but will lead to a public health time bomb. The government have to jack up the prices and hurt the smokers wallets.

During the Japanese invasion the insidious Japs even sold a brand of cigarettes in China laced with opium to weaken the Chinese people. I think it was called Golden Bat.

When I was visiting a relative in China back in 2002, I was offered tea and a cigarette like everyone needs a smoke!

Smoking weakens a country and makes men weak.

 

[ahojunk]

Time to ban e-cigarettes.

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E-cigarettes encouraging youth to smoke: study
2017-01-24 08:55 Xinhua Editor: Gu Liping

E-cigarettes, widely promoted as an alternative to smoking, are actually attracting young people who might not otherwise have smoked tobacco products, a new U.S. study suggested Monday.

E-cigarettes are thought by some to be responsible for a decline in American youth cigarette smoking, but researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) indicated the reality is the opposite.

The USCF researchers concluded that many kids who went on to smoke regular cigarettes may not have used nicotine at all if e-cigarettes did not exist.

"We didn't find any evidence that e-cigarettes are causing youth smoking to decline," said lead author Lauren Dutra of the UCSF.

"While some of the kids using e-cigarettes were also smoking cigarettes, we found that kids who were at low risk of starting nicotine with cigarettes were using e-cigarettes," Dutra said. "Recent declines in youth smoking are likely due to tobacco control efforts, not to e-cigarettes."

The findings, published in U.S. journal Pediatrics, built on a growing body of evidence that adolescents who start with e-cigarettes are more likely to subsequently smoke traditional cigarettes.

For the study, researchers examined data from more than 140,000 middle and high school students who completed a U.S. government tobacco survey between 2004 and 2014.

They found that cigarette smoking among U.S. adolescents declined during that decade, but did not decline faster after the advent of e-cigarettes in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009.

In fact, combined e-cigarette and cigarette use among adolescents in 2014 was higher than total cigarette use in 2009, according to the study.

"E-cigarettes are encouraging -- not discouraging -- youth to smoke and to consume nicotine, and are expanding the tobacco market," said senior author Stanton Glantz, UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that look like cigarettes and deliver an aerosol of nicotine and other chemicals.

In August 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted e-cigarette purchases to adults ages 18 and older.

The FDA will also require a warning label on e-cigarettes, starting August 2018, regarding the addictive nature of nicotine.

However, the FDA's ruling does not regulate advertising or flavors, and e-cigarettes continue to be sold in flavors that appeal to youth, the UCSF researchers said.

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[Bussard Ramjet]

Tobacco lobby holding back smoking ban
2017-03-01 08:30 China Daily Editor: Mo Hong'e

SHI YU/CHINA DAILY

On Wednesday, Shanghai becomes the latest municipality in China, following Beijing and Shenzhen, to launch a 100 percent smoke-free policy in public places and work spaces. Some 60 million people－more than the population of many countries－living in these cities can now enjoy smoke-free public places.

While we congratulate Shanghai on joining Beijing and Shenzhen as global leaders in tobacco control, we must also ask: How is it that only three cities in China have adopted comprehensive smoke-free policies? What is standing in the way of the rest of the 1.3 billion citizens having the right to smoke-free indoor air in their workplaces and factories, and in restaurants and shopping areas?

President Xi Jinping has announced his vision for China's future. First, he announced the Chinese Dream; then he called for the Chinese economy to reinvent itself, led by industrial innovation; and last summer, he announced his Health China 2030 initiative, a bold declaration that made public health a precondition for all future economic and social development.

As evidenced in this remarkable series of policy announcements, Xi's vision for China is one in which economic growth enhances, rather than sacrifices, individual well-being.

Unfortunately, there remains a glaring obstacle to realizing the Chinese Dream and Healthy China 2030 vision－an obstacle which has resisted the considerable efforts of China's public health authorities, advocates and citizens: the tobacco economy.

Tobacco represents an economy of the past. China's tobacco companies do not fit the vision of an economy driven by innovative, value-added manufacturing and a strong service sector. Its very reliance on Chinese smokers undermines efforts to build a healthy China by 2030.

We celebrate the smoke-free laws in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. But they are among the wealthiest cities in China, which raises the question of inequality. Smoke-free indoor air should not be a luxury for the wealthy, rather an entitlement for all Chinese citizens who are working hard to realize the Chinese Dream.

Why is this not happening? The reason is largely because of the short-sighted economic interests that are not aligned with the President's vision.

The small but successful tobacco tax adopted in 2015, which reduced smoking and increased government revenues, should be drastically increased so that the tobacco companies pay more tax and farmers start growing alternative crops.

Instead, there is continued resistance to further tobacco taxes and stronger advertising restrictions. Most concerning is that progress has all but stopped on a national smoke-free law.

To those who doubt whether rural governments are capable of implementing a comprehensive smoke-free law, I would point to the hundreds of millions of people China pulled out of poverty in three decades－a much tougher implementation challenge, achieved through strong government leadership and coordinated action at all levels.

Xi's vision for China's future is clear. The country's leadership should pass comprehensive legislation against tobacco to ensure all Chinese citizens, not just those in the wealthiest cities, can breathe smoke-free air indoors.

Local leaders like those in Shanghai are taking bold decisions to ensure the health of citizens. And even in the absence of national legislation, they are breathing new life into the Chinese Dream to make Xi's Healthy China 2030 vision a reality and relegate the tobacco economy to a place it deserves－in the past.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/03-01/247303.shtml

 

[ahojunk]

Tobacco's many ills growing too costly
2017-04-15 10:14 | China Daily | Editor: Li Yan

Smoking-related diseases are on track to claim more than 200 million lives in China this century, a World Health Organization/United Nations Development Programme joint report warns. Most of these deaths will occur in China's poorest and most vulnerable communities unless critical steps are taken to reduce the country's dependency on tobacco.

The report, "The Bill China Cannot Afford: Health, Economic and Social Costs of China's Tobacco Epidemic", was issued on Friday. It explores the consequences China's tobacco use on its development.

The rapidly increasing costs associated with tobacco use in China are unsustainable, the report said, citing an estimated total cost in 2014 of $57 billion, more than 10 times what it was in 2000.

The expenses are both direct, such as medical bills from smoking-related diseases, and indirect, such as costs incurred from accidents, like fires, caused by smoking.

The report demonstrates tobacco control saves lives and is a developmental issue as well, Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO China Representative, said at its presentation.

China has constantly worked to curb public smoking in particular, for example by making local laws and regulations that ban smoking in indoor public places and raising the tobacco tax, said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of ThinkTank, an NGO committed to tobacco control.

Additional and more progressive policies are needed, Schwartlander said. Otherwise "the consequences could be devastating, not just for the health of people across the country, but also for China's economy as a whole", he said.

China is the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer - about 44 percent of the world's cigarettes are smoked here - according to the National Helath and Family Planning Commission. More than 1 million people die in China each year from tobacco-related diseases.

The highest smoking rates are among blue-collar workers, and rates are higher in rural than in urban areas, the report said.

Smoking has a greater effect on the poor, said Nicholas Rosellini, UNDP Resident Representative in China.

"It causes impoverishment and entrenches social inequality," he said.

Low-income families can scarcely afford the high medical expenses of treating smoking-related diseases like lung cancer, the report said. It cited a recent Chinese study that found 9.2 percent of the rural Chinese households were driven into poverty by medical bills.

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China should toughen its laws against smoking.
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[ahojunk]

Smoking costs China $57 billion in 2014: WHO calls for national ban
2017-04-16 13:11 | Global Times | Editor: Yao Lan

The economic dividends from China's tobacco industry are a false economy, which is at odds with government's vision for China's future, the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed on Friday.

"The total economic cost of tobacco use in China in 2014 amounted to a staggering 350 billion yuan ($57 billion), a tenfold increase since 2000," Bernhard Schwartlander, the WHO representative in China, told a press conference in Beijing.

The increase is a result of more people diagnosed with tobacco-related illness and increasing healthcare expenditure, according to a report jointly released by the WHO and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) at the conference.

"The direct cost of treating tobacco-related diseases in China was about 53 billion yuan and the indirect cost was expected to be 297 billion yuan," in which the productivity loss from premature deaths was a major concern, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the report said that tobacco represents an economy of the past as China's tobacco companies do not fit the vision of an innovative, value-added future economy.

"Projected increases in these costs will lead to negative spillovers effects across many sectors, placing increasing challenges to Chinese economy and businesses, in addition to the social welfare and health system," it said.

Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Beijing-based Research Center for Health Development, a think tank, told the Global Times earlier that China has huge public support for a nationwide smoking ban, but the timetable to adopt a law has been on the back burner.

"The proposed law has been mainly stymied by tobacco industry officials due to the huge economic interests involved," Wu said.

The sector handed over 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) to the State in 2015, up 20.2 percent from the previous year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said in 2016.

The revenue from the tobacco industry derives from corporations whose business model is to create dependence on a lethal substance.

China in 2016 adopted the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint, which says China aims to reduce smoking rates among adults from 28 percent to 20 percent by 2030.

More than 1 million people die of tobacco-related diseases every year in China, and the number is expected to reach 3 million by 2050 if no action to reduce smoking rates is taken. About 44 percent of the world's cigarettes were consumed in China in 2014, nearly 26 percent higher than that in India, the report said.

China's Ministry of Finance announced in May 2015 to raise cigarette taxation from the previous 5 percent to 11 percent, which "led to a reduction in cigarette sales for the first time in 20 years," according to the report.

However, "cigarettes are increasingly affordable as the increase in cigarette prices has been much lower than the average increase in salaries."


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A smoking ban has my full support.
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[TaiShang]

Tobacco's many ills growing too costly
2017-04-15 10:14 | China Daily | Editor: Li Yan

Smoking-related diseases are on track to claim more than 200 million lives in China this century, a World Health Organization/United Nations Development Programme joint report warns. Most of these deaths will occur in China's poorest and most vulnerable communities unless critical steps are taken to reduce the country's dependency on tobacco.

The report, "The Bill China Cannot Afford: Health, Economic and Social Costs of China's Tobacco Epidemic", was issued on Friday. It explores the consequences China's tobacco use on its development.

The rapidly increasing costs associated with tobacco use in China are unsustainable, the report said, citing an estimated total cost in 2014 of $57 billion, more than 10 times what it was in 2000.

The expenses are both direct, such as medical bills from smoking-related diseases, and indirect, such as costs incurred from accidents, like fires, caused by smoking.

The report demonstrates tobacco control saves lives and is a developmental issue as well, Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO China Representative, said at its presentation.

China has constantly worked to curb public smoking in particular, for example by making local laws and regulations that ban smoking in indoor public places and raising the tobacco tax, said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of ThinkTank, an NGO committed to tobacco control.

Additional and more progressive policies are needed, Schwartlander said. Otherwise "the consequences could be devastating, not just for the health of people across the country, but also for China's economy as a whole", he said.

China is the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer - about 44 percent of the world's cigarettes are smoked here - according to the National Helath and Family Planning Commission. More than 1 million people die in China each year from tobacco-related diseases.

The highest smoking rates are among blue-collar workers, and rates are higher in rural than in urban areas, the report said.

Smoking has a greater effect on the poor, said Nicholas Rosellini, UNDP Resident Representative in China.

"It causes impoverishment and entrenches social inequality," he said.

Low-income families can scarcely afford the high medical expenses of treating smoking-related diseases like lung cancer, the report said. It cited a recent Chinese study that found 9.2 percent of the rural Chinese households were driven into poverty by medical bills.

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China should toughen its laws against smoking.
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In my opinion, Mainland's anti-smoking efforts should be at least as tough as the anti-corruption efforts.

Smoking is no less damaging to the well-being of society than corruption. President Xi should really put much greater weight on this issue.

When I was visiting a university with my supervisor in Mainland China, Jinan, I was so surprised to find out that they sold (open display) cigarette in the school canteen. Also, they kept selling cigarette at the entrance of playing field. Such a nasty irony.

 

[grey boy 2]

Cigarette perhaps the most damaging goods that can possibly be openly sold to the China's public in short and long term wise, IMHO, the opium war against us has never been stopped, its high time for China and us Chinese to stop this madness once and for all