China is the world’s heaviest smoker and its inhabitants represent a third of the world’s smokers. As expected, this situation leads to a surge in respiratory diseases, US-China Today reported.

 

Everything in China is bigger, more, unmatched when it comes to numbers. It has the largest tobacco company in the world – the China National Tobacco Company, which is part of the China State Tobacco Monopoly Administration run by the government in Beijing. The smoking industry amounts to 8% of the total revenues of the Chinese government. All these facts point to one thing: at some point, China will have to choose: money or health?

 

There are some that consider going with the second option. A health association in Macao hopes that the Tobacco Control Act will be passed very soon in order to strengthen the control of the smoking industry, Macao Daily Times reported.

 

The Tobacco Control Act would better control the policy of smoking in public places and increase the tobacco tariff.

 

The smoking and tobacco use problem seems to affect another giant country. Yes, you guessed right: India. The Asian nation has an approximate number of 229 million male smokers, second after China’s 331 million.

 

Indian Women smoke significantly less than Indian men. There are about 11 million of female smokers in India of which 5 million smoke cigarettes or bidis, while 6 million other chew tobacco, according to Times of India, which quoted data from the forthcoming Tobacco Atlas. 

 

India is the third-biggest tobacco producer in the world behind China and Brazil.