China’s Tobacco Control Association announced that the country is committed to fulfill its obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. China formally became a member of the convention last January. Yet a senior official from China’s State Tobacco Monopoly, who did not want to be named, was reported to say that despite a willingness to cooperate, tobacco producers were lawful enterprises, and it was not fair to ‘butcher’ the industry. “There is market demand for tobacco, people can choose if they smoke or not. . . (Tobacco) firms are using scientific and technological improvements in tobacco products to ‘lower’ the harmful effects of smoking.”
Sound familiar? Maybe that’s why China’s efforts to ban smoking promotion won’t go into effect until 2011. Explain that to the kids. (See my previous posts here , here and here on this uphill battle.)
