China will have the world's highest number of lung cancer
patients at one million a year by 2025 if smoking and pollution are
not effectively curbed, experts have warned while citing World
Health Organization (WHO) figures.
According to China's national tumor prevention and cure research
office, affiliated to the Ministry of Health, the country had
120,000 new lung cancer patients over the past five years. Lung
cancer killed more people -- one out of every four -- than any
other disease, sources said.
A recent WHO report indicates that smoking is the single,
largest avoidable cause of death in the world and currently claims
4.9 million lives a year.
"Smoking and pollution are two major causes of the high rate of
lung cancer," Zhi Xiuyi, director of the lung cancer treatment
center of the Beijing-based Capital Medical University, told
China Daily.
Chinese smokers have surpassed the 350-million mark and account
for more than a third of the world's 1.3 billion smokers. Two out
of three Chinese men are smokers. It's estimated that the total
output of the cigarette industry in 2006 was some 300 billion yuan
(US$37 billion).
The deteriorating environment is also contributing to the rising
rate of lung cancer in China. Epidemiological investigations have
found that the lung cancer rate in industrial and polluted regions
is higher than in non-industry areas.?
"Occurrence of lung cancer is closely related with motor vehicle
exhausts," Sun Yan, a cancer expert and academician of the Chinese
Academy of Engineering, told the Life Times.
Zhi said traffic policemen had a higher rate of lung cancer than
those in other professions.
Pollution caused by indoor furnishings can also be a factor and
experts advise people not to choose materials with harmful
chemicals for such household items.??
As many as a third of lung cancer cases can be avoided through
preventive efforts, Zhi said.
Experts have called for stricter controls on smoking, especially
in public places, and more anti-pollution measures to cut down the
rise in the number of lung cancer patients.
The government has moved in that direction in recent times by
banning the sale of cigarettes to minors and from vending machines
as well as stopping smoking in public places such as cinemas and
hospitals.
(China Daily January 4, 2007)