Tobacco in China

Abstract

The recent Editorial (April 19, p 1360)1The LancetCigarette packaging in China—not going far enough.Lancet. 2014; 383: 1360Scopus (2) Google Scholar on cigarette packaging in China not only highlighted China's failure to comply with Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)'s requirement for health warnings on tobacco packaging, but also correctly pointed out the main cause for this failure, which is the serious conflict of interest presented by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, a government agency responsible for maintaining country's tobacco industry and also responsible for leading national tobacco control efforts. Tobacco production and sales are strictly controlled by the state, largely through China National Tobacco Corporation, founded in 1982. In 1983, China's State Council issued the Tobacco Monopoly Regulations to formally establish a national tobacco monopoly system. In the following year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration was created, embedded within China National Tobacco Corporation, to provide centralised management of the national tobacco industry, including finance, people, material, production, supply, marketing, and internal and external trade. The integration of government administrative power with strong financial resources into tobacco industry has completely transformed China's tobacco industry. Tobacco production has increased from 1 789 billion units in 2003, when China signed the WHO FCTC, to 2516 billion units in 2012, an annual increase rate about 3–6% (figure). The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is not only a governmental agency with major vested interests to support tobacco industry, it is also one of the key members of the interministerial coordinating group on FCTC to lead the development and formulation of tobacco control policy in China. Which kind of antitobacco health campaigns might one expect with such a serious conflict of interest? To slow down tobacco production and to separate the functions of the government from the tobacco industry are the most important steps required towards fulfilling FCTC goals in China to reduce the intolerable toll of mortality and morbidity from tobacco. We declare no competing interests. Cigarette packaging in China—not going far enoughA WHO report , Tobacco Health Warnings in China: Evidence of Effectiveness and Implications for Action, published on April 8, summarises evidence on the effectiveness of China's written health warnings on tobacco packaging. It concludes that China failed to comply with Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which defines packaging and labelling of tobacco products. The report calls for policy makers to accelerate the implementation of pictorial warnings in the packaging of tobacco products and public education targets set out in China's National Tobacco Control Plan. Full-Text PDF