Smoking issue in China
Quit Smoking in China? Impossible!
China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of tobacco. There are 350 million smokers and China produce 42% of the world’s cigarettes (Li, Hsia, and Yang). China is a country where a lot of people smoke and where it is common for people to smoke in hospital waiting rooms. In China, smoking has already become a social behavior. I first smoked a cigarette when I was in high school. At that time, I thought smoking was cool. Therefore, I asked my friend to give me a cigarette and I wanted to try it. My first cigarette made me cough and feel nauseated. It tasted awful. At that time, I did not think someone would enjoy that cigarette’s taste, and I believed that I would not become addicted. Nevertheless, life proved that I was totally wrong, and I kept smoking. When I entered the university, I found there were a lot of nonsmoking signs on campus, but no one really cared about the nonsmoking signs. I could see teachers also commonly smoked on school campus. No one really cared about whether people smoked on campus and that meant the nonsmoking signs were useless. I could smoke everywhere; after I smoked over and over, I got addicted. Before I came to the United States, I tried to quit smoking a lot of times, because I knew smoking was not good for my health, but I failed every time. Based on my research and my personal experience, I realized smoking is difficult to quit in China because of the environmental, governmental, and social factors.
The first big reason that makes quitting smoking difficult in China is the environmental factor. As Qiang li, Jason Hsia and Gonghuan Yang noted in their report “In 2010, an estimated 28.1% of adults in China (52.9% of men and 2.4% of women) were current smokers — a prevalence ratio of 22 to 1. Among men the prevalence was highest among those 45 to 64 years of age (63.0%) and lowest among those 15 to 24 years of age (33.6%). The prevalence of smoking among men was significantly higher
China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of tobacco. There are 350 million smokers and China produce 42% of the world’s cigarettes (Li, Hsia, and Yang). China is a country where a lot of people smoke and where it is common for people to smoke in hospital waiting rooms. In China, smoking has already become a social behavior. I first smoked a cigarette when I was in high school. At that time, I thought smoking was cool. Therefore, I asked my friend to give me a cigarette and I wanted to try it. My first cigarette made me cough and feel nauseated. It tasted awful. At that time, I did not think someone would enjoy that cigarette’s taste, and I believed that I would not become addicted. Nevertheless, life proved that I was totally wrong, and I kept smoking. When I entered the university, I found there were a lot of nonsmoking signs on campus, but no one really cared about the nonsmoking signs. I could see teachers also commonly smoked on school campus. No one really cared about whether people smoked on campus and that meant the nonsmoking signs were useless. I could smoke everywhere; after I smoked over and over, I got addicted. Before I came to the United States, I tried to quit smoking a lot of times, because I knew smoking was not good for my health, but I failed every time. Based on my research and my personal experience, I realized smoking is difficult to quit in China because of the environmental, governmental, and social factors.
The first big reason that makes quitting smoking difficult in China is the environmental factor. As Qiang li, Jason Hsia and Gonghuan Yang noted in their report “In 2010, an estimated 28.1% of adults in China (52.9% of men and 2.4% of women) were current smokers — a prevalence ratio of 22 to 1. Among men the prevalence was highest among those 45 to 64 years of age (63.0%) and lowest among those 15 to 24 years of age (33.6%). The prevalence of smoking among men was significantly higher
Cited: Li, Qiang, Jason Hsia, and Gonghuan Yang. “Prevalence of Smoking in China in 2010.” Nejm 2011. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. Schueler, Gerald. “Social Influences of Behavior.” Schuelers. N.p., n.d.Web. 10 Oct. 2012 Kopko, Kimberly. "The Effects of the Physical Environment on Children’s Development." Cornell. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. "Tobacco in the People’s Republic of China." Fao. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.