Because China has a population of 1.4 billion, things happen on its social scene in super-size.
One of the first things an American will notice in any public place in China is how many are smoking cigarettes. Estimates are that 30 percent of the adults there are addicted to tobacco. Thirty percent of 1.4 billion comes to more than 400 million — or 100 million more smokers in China than the United States has people.
Another thing that stands out is that the Chinese smoke wherever they are, so the habit is much more noticeable.
They are trying to change that. A new law that forbids smoking in public buildings went into effect Sunday. It isn’t expected to have much effect because no penalties are provided for smokers or for those in charge of buildings.
But the Chinese will keep trying because they aren’t immune to the lethal effects of pulling tar and nicotine-laden smoke into their lungs every few minutes, day after day. The death toll is about 1 million a year — another super-size number. There, just as here, tobacco is the largest readily preventable cause of death and disease.
The Chinese, more than most, accept control of personal behavior. They are still enforcing the one-child-per- married-couple rule that is bringing their population increase under gradual control. With that in mind, control of smoking should be a breeze.
And it would be if it weren’t for special interests. Yep, they have them, too. The cigarette factories and the tobacco farms are all owned by the government. Sale of those coffin nails runs into the billions. Rather than choke off that steady stream of money into privileged hands, the powers-that-be let the addiction roll on.
The same money-driven de-cision has been made around the whole wide world.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
