In an interview with the AFP, a WHO official says that healthcare costs will escalate in China as a lack of education and the government’s vested interests encourage the country’s smokers. One in three of the world’s smokers live in China. More than 1 million people die in China every year from tobacco-related illness; the WHO estimates that figure could rise to more than 3 million by 2050.
“Here (in China) the problem is perhaps made worse by the fact that the tobacco industry is a national monopoly, and therefore the government has a vested industry in the tobacco industry,” said Burke Fishburn, regional coordinator for the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.
