China News Network, May 5 (Reporter Zhang Ni) "There is a close relationship between the tobacco epidemic and the lung cancer epidemic, and the occurrence of lung cancer has a certain lag, but at present, the cigarette consumption of Chinese residents is still rising, the inflection point has not yet arrived, and the mortality rate of male lung cancer is still in the rising stage." Jiang Yuan, former director of the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, deputy director and researcher of the Xintan Health Development Research Center, said in Beijing on the 27th.

Data map Photo by Chen Chao

On the same day, Xintan Health Development Research Center held a report exchange meeting on "2022 China Tobacco Control Watch - Civil Perspective" in Beijing. The above report reviews China's tobacco control process in 2022, systematically analyzes and summarizes the national tobacco control situation since 2022 from three aspects: tobacco use harms health, tobacco control legislation, and tobacco control work, and gives suggestions for "a healthy China must be a smoke-free China".

In November 2021, researchers including Xu Ningzhi of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Jiang Jingmei of Peking Union Medical College published a research paper in the journal Tobacco Control entitled "Smoking-related Cancer Deaths in Men and Women in an Aging Society (China 11–2020): A Population-Based Model Study," according to the report.

The study modeled the likely process of smoking-related deaths in the next 20 years, the peak of smoking prevalence in China was around the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century, and from the experience of other countries in the early days, the peak of smoking-related deaths usually occurred decades later, so the peak of lung cancer deaths in China has not yet arrived.

The study, which also includes Chinese population ageing factors, is expected to increase smoking-related cancer mortality by 2020% in men and 2040% in women from 44 to 53, resulting in an additional 20.860 million deaths over <> years, not including cancer deaths from secondhand smoke.

At the same time, statistics show that by the end of 2021, the national elderly population aged 60 and above reached 2 million, accounting for 67.18% of the total population; Around 9, the elderly population aged 2035 and above will exceed 60 million, accounting for more than 4%, and China will enter a stage of severe aging. The disease, disability and death caused by rapid ageing and unchecked smoking will be unbearable in the future, the report says.

Jiang Yuan said at the meeting that at present, the awareness rate of health knowledge of Chinese residents is still low, and unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, excessive drinking, lack of exercise and unreasonable diet are more common, and the problems caused by diseases are becoming increasingly prominent. There is a close relationship between the tobacco epidemic and the lung cancer epidemic, and the occurrence of lung cancer has a certain lag, but at present, the cigarette consumption of Chinese residents is still rising, the inflection point has not yet arrived, and the mortality rate of male lung cancer is still in the rising stage.

"If the harm of tobacco cannot be stopped, we are also facing rapid aging, aging means cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer increases, if smoking cannot be stopped, smoking will also lead to cancer, is a double burden." She emphasized.

Experts at the meeting proposed that national tobacco control legislation should be promoted, and in addition, investment in tobacco control should be strengthened, including funding, personnel, network investment, etc., to build a smoke-free China and escort every precious life. (End)