Yahoo – AFP,
Giles Hewitt, 18 Sep 2014
Three
elderly men take a cigarette break, in Shanghai, on March 22, 2012
(AFP
Photo/Peter Parks)
|
Smoke-filled
bars and packed cancer wards reflect decades of neglect of no-smoking policies
in Asia, where both high- and low-income countries are belatedly waking up to a
growing tobacco-related health epidemic.
Researchers
say inadequate public awareness of smoking risks, coupled with aggressive
tobacco marketing, has left Asian nations with some of the highest smoking
rates in the world at a time when sustained anti-smoking campaigns have lowered
rates in the US and parts of Europe.
Roughly 60
percent of the world's population lives in Asia, where "tobacco control
programmes are less well-developed, particularly in low- and middle-income
countries like China and India", said a major regional study published
April in PLOS Medicine.
An Indian
Hindu Sadhu smokes near a
temple in Pushkar, on November 5, 2011 (AFP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds) |
European
countries have spearheaded raising taxes on tobacco -- backed by the World
Health Organisation as the most cost-effective way to curb smoking. But Asian
countries have been slow to follow suit.
'Biggest
threat'
Last week,
however, the South Korean government proposed a massive 80 percent increase in
cigarette prices.
In a
country where 44 percent of the male population smokes, Health Minister Moon
Hyung-Pyo said the time had come to grapple seriously with the "biggest
threat to national health".
Opposition
critics criticised what they saw as a desperate bid to raise tax revenues to
fund a growing welfare bill and said the move would hit low-income earners the
hardest.
"Smoking
was long regarded as a way for hard-working Korean men to counter the stress of
the country's rapid industrialisation," said Kim Jin-Young, a sociology
professor at Korea University.
"Governments
were very wary of raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol for fear of an
electoral backlash," Kim told AFP.
"But
the public perception is changing now, with people putting more of an emphasis
on public health than before," he added.
The South
Korean tobacco market is estimated to be worth around $9.0 billion a year.
In April,
state health insurers filed a lawsuit against three domestic and foreign
tobacco makers, seeking damages of 53.7 billion won for payouts over
tobacco-related illnesses.
They
claimed to have spent about 1.7 trillion won each year to help treat diseases caused
by smoking.
In Japan,
where more than 30 percent of men smoke, the government raised taxes on
cigarettes in June -- the first increase for 17 years.
"Japan's
smoking rate is really a legacy of the wartime national policy of promoting
smoking as a source of national budget," said Hiroshi Yamato, a doctor and
smoking expert at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in
Kitakyushu, western Japan.
The tobacco
industry was a state monopoly until 1985 when it was privatised as Japan
Tobacco, which still controls more than 60 percent of the market and wields
substantial political influence.
"Japan
is still way behind in terms of anti-smoking policies especially measures
against secondhand smoke," said Yamato.
"You
can still smoke in a lot of public places in Japan such as office buildings,
coffee shops, restaurants and bars," he added.
South Korea
only banned smoking in public places in July 2013, with small restaurants and
bars exempted until 2015.
Too little,
too late?
Although
global smoking rates have fallen, more people smoke worldwide today than in
1980, mainly due to population surges in countries like China and India.
People are seen at a designated smoking
area on a street in Tokyo, on May 31, 2013
(AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)
|
Tobacco use
is linked to 1.2 million deaths a year in China and around one million in
India, and studies suggest the toll is going to increase exponentially.
A paper
published in the British Medical Journal this year said China risked
accumulating 50 million tobacco deaths between 2012 and 2050.
And because
of the long latency of diseases associated with smoking, the full impact of
decades of laissez-faire policies has yet to be felt.
"Many
Asian countries are in the early stages of the tobacco epidemic," said the
PLOS Medicine study.
"So it
is likely that the burden of diseases caused by tobacco smoking will continue
to rise over the next few decades, and much longer if the tobacco epidemic
remains unchecked," it said.
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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)
“… The Shift in Human Nature
You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.
In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?
Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.
What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”
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