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Jenny Tang

Prof. Broadbent

Writing 39C / AP draft

21 May 2018

AP Draft

Abstract for the problem:

Smoking has always been a big issue in China from quite a long time ago. Back to 1949

when nowadays China is established, the top leaders in China is fancy about smoking. In China’s

society rules, if the leaders smoke, people cannot say “no”. Smoking has become prevalent.

Because leaders love smoking, there are some workers who want to ingratiate their bosses to

give them cigarettes as gifts. Gradually, this becomes a social habit. According to Zhenfeng Pan

of the University of Louisville concluded: "In China, smoking serves an important social

function: the connection builder. When people meet each other, it is a custom for everyone to

offer cigarettes to signal respect and hospitality.” After decades, when movies are popular in

China, the directors will always let the top leaders hold cigarettes on their hand to show their

leader spirit, which educating young teenagers continue their parents or grandparents’ habit.

Nowadays, Chinese, especially men, have a much higher smoking rate than any other country in

the rest of the world. The second-hand smoke also has an impact on other non-smokers’ health,

causing a national health crisis. According to an article published on Reviews on Environmental

Health, “If 30% of these smokers were to die of smoke-related diseases in the next 20 years, the

impact from the more than 90 million premature deaths could be damaging to China. In addition,

numerous non-smokers also experience health problems from exposure to environmental tobacco

smoke.” The government wants benefits created by the tobacco industry. The China National
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Tobacco Corporation, a government-control company, have a monopoly on China’s Tobacco

market. Their incomes produce a 7% to 10% government revenue according to New York Times.

For those who are smoking, they even don’t realize the harmful effects that tobacco bring to

health because of lack of education. They tend to believe the “ridiculous” posts on the internet

rather than doctors’ words.

Obstacles:

Because 7%-10% of government revenues are now coming from the China Tobacco.

Corporation. The government will not give up such benefits. The revenues that the Tobacco

created can be used for economic and education development in China. Cigarettes are

communication tool, the society cannot maintain without them. The society needs to find

alternative ways to solve the problem, which should be healthy and reasonable. As Wang Hong

stated in Salud publica de Mexico, “As long as the tobacco industry continues to be significant in

overall economic development, and as long as the government continues to play a significant

role in tobacco production, the debate between tobacco production and tobacco control will

continue.” People don’t realize the harmful effects at all. They will not quit smoking unless their

own live are threatened. The normal “intimidating” things cannot let them quit.

Previous Solutions in China:

Entering 2000, China realized that their smoking population are too high and need to be

control. Smoking has surprisingly increase the rate of heart attack, lung cancer in China. In,

2005, China decide to join in WHO Framework convention on Tobacco control, which means

this convention has legal effects in mainland. Beijing, the capital of China, set the law that all the
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public areas should be smoke-free at 2011. Also, at the same year, the State Administration of

Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television set the notification that all the movies and shows

should restrict the uses of smoking scenes and cigarettes advertisements. But does these

regulations, notifications work? There are still a lot of smokers on Beijing’s Street today and

teenagers can still buy cigarettes at grocery stores. They use the word, “restrict” instead of “ban”,

which is useless and has no effect. At the end of 2012, according to a survey conducted by China

Daily, there are still 50% of movies and TV shoes that have smoking scenes. Controlling by

regulations and policies won’t do well in China.

Solutions in Other countries:

California levy a heavy tax on Cigarettes and other tobacco products to reduce the smoking rate.

According to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, for cigarettes, the tax for

one pack(20s) is 2.87 dollar and for other tobacco products, the tax is 62.87% of wholesale cost.

However, does this actually reduce the smoking rate? It has positive effects though, as mentioned

by BMJ Journals, “there was sufficient evidence of effectiveness of increased tobacco excise

taxes and prices in reducing overall tobacco consumption and prevalence of tobacco use and

improvement of public health, including by preventing initiation and uptake among young

people, promoting cessation among current users and lowering consumption among those who

continue to use.” However, first, people can addict to smoking. 2.87 dollars a pack does not

affect people’s passion to buy it. If a meal only cost 10-15 dollars, a 2.87 dollars tax on cigarettes

doesn’t mean a lot. Moreover, people tend to buy the cigarettes no matter how expensive they

are. Lots of smokers cannot live without cigarettes. These people who highly rely on cigarettes

will still buy them even if they are expensive. Making cigarettes more expensive can only
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increase their pressure and make their life even harder. For rich people who are smoking, they

don’t care such a “little” tax on tobacco. They can spend thousands of dollars in luxury stores

and neglect these small increases in prices. And also, they are willing to buy much more

expensive one to show their positions. The higher tax on cigarettes only hurt those who are poor.

Poor people need to use the money that originally prepare for their family or children’s tuition to

buy cigarettes or are forced to give up this habit. But do the poor people not have rights to

smoke? Smoking problem can only be solved when people truly realize the harmful effects that

cigarettes bring and quit smoking by themselves.

My solution:

In my opinion, the best way to reduce smoking rate in China is to make the packs

of cigarettes “disgusting”. Disgusting does not mean that the producers only print “Smoking

affect health” on the packs, which China are currently doing this now. No one will care. Lots of

things can affect health. We all know that burgers fries and chips affect our health but we still eat

them. According to a report published on BMJ Journals, “Relative to text-only warnings,

pictorial warnings (1) attracted and held attention better; (2) garnered stronger cognitive and

emotional reactions; (3) elicited more negative pack attitudes and negative smoking attitudes and

(4) more effectively increased intentions to not start smoking and to quit smoking.” Smokers

will never care the health issues tobacco brings until someday, their lives are threatened by lung

cancer or heart diseases. The pictures should be shocking and unforgettable. What kind of

pictures can we put on the packs to let the smokers feel their life are threatened? Malaysia is an

example. A research done by some scientists also reveal that: “Exposure to the pictorial warnings

resulted in increased awareness of the risks of smoking, stronger behavioral response to the
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warnings and increased interest in quitting smoking. The new warnings in Malaysia will increase

smokers’ knowledge of the adverse health effects of smoking and have a positive effect on

interest in quitting.”

The ugly pictures on the cigarettes pack in Malaysia can not only encourage people to quit

smoking but also educate people that smoking really affect health and prevent more people from

addicting to smoking. Nonsmokers see these pictures will feel that I never want my lungs and

throats look like that. Cigarettes in China are attractively packed. “Panda” Cigarettes, which are

considered expensive, are orange packed with two cute pandas. They are not only used in normal

family setting, but also in some formal greetings. These expensive and delicate packing

cigarettes are best gifts in China. During holidays, people will buy these tobacco products send

to their friends, families and even their children’s teachers. However, if we make the packs of

cigarettes disgusting, they cannot act as a social tool and used as gifts, which will gradually

decrease this bad social habit in China. Also, even if tax on cigarettes only hurt those who are

poor, a country should never let the cigarettes cheaper than water and food. According to Los

Angeles Times, “Cigarettes in China cost as little as 12 cents for a package of 20, but more
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desirable brands can cost a dollar or more.” The prices of cigarettes also let a large number of

teenagers afford the tobacco. When the teenagers cannot have their own minds and make their

own decisions, they will easily be confused by the movies and advertisements and addicted to

smoking in the future. The government can only raise the prices at least to let teenagers hard to

afford. These a little price increasing can also bring economic effects as they will. They will be

happy about the revenues that tax bring.

Cigarettes packing in China. Source: China Cigarettes Website

Potential Problems about my solutions:

If

Works Cited:

Wang, Hong. "Tobacco control in China: the dilemma between economic development and

health improvement." Salud publica de Mexico 48 (2006): s140-s147.

Leo, Peter. "In China, smoking's the big thing." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2006).
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Au, William W., Daisy Su, and Jiang Yuan. "Cigarette smoking in China: public health, science,

and policy." Reviews on environmental health 27.1 (2012): 43-49.

Noar, Seth M., et al. "Pictorial cigarette pack warnings: a meta-analysis of experimental

studies." Tobacco control(2015): tobaccocontrol-2014.

Fathelrahman, Ahmed I., et al. "Impact of the new Malaysian cigarette pack warnings on

smokers’ awareness of health risks and interest in quitting smoking." International journal of

environmental research and public health 7.11 (2010): 4089-4099.

Chaloupka, Frank J., Kurt Straif, and Maria E. Leon. "Effectiveness of tax and price policies in

tobacco control." Tobacco Control (2010): tc-2010.