Students from Huaibei Health School gesticulate around a 5-meter-long gigantic cigarette, a hand-made model for a smoking-deserting publicity on the World No Tobacco Day which falls on May 31, on their campus in Huaibei, east China's Anhui Province, May 30, 2009. (Xinhua/Li Bo) Photo Gallery>>>

    by Xinhua Writer Gui Tao

    BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Images of bleeding brains, blackened teeth and rotten lungs should appear on Chinese tobacco products to deter smokers, experts said on Sunday, the 22nd "World No Tobacco Day."

    In the 2009 China Tobacco Control Report issued on Sunday, health experts said the tobacco packages are "the best battlefield against smoking."

    The report, compiled by domestic health experts and issued by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), said that putting health warnings of text and pictures on tobacco packages is supposed to be "one of the most cost-effective ways to increase public awareness of the serious health risks of tobacco use, to reduce tobacco consumption and save lives in the country with the world's largest smoking population."

    Statistics show that China has more than 300 million smokers.

    "I urge the government to require that all tobacco packages should include pictorial warnings to show suffering caused by tobacco use," said Yu Xin, head of Beijing's 6th Hospital and one of the co-authors of the report.

    "The youth would think twice at these pictures before they light up their first cigarette," he said.

    The World No Tobacco Day theme for 2009 is Tobacco Health Warning.

    The use of graphic warnings on tobacco packages has proved effective in preventing tobacco use in many countries.

    "In Canada, 58 percent of smokers said the warnings made them think more about the health effects of smoking and in Brazil, 67 percent of smokers said the warnings made them want to quit," said Dr. Sarah England, Technical Officer with World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative.

    "However, many Chinese tobacco products feature national icons like the Forbidden City and famous scenic beauty spots like Yellow Mountain, which are attractive to look at, to own and to hold," she added. "Some brands are strongly associated with high social standing and prestige and distract consumers from the harsh reality of how tobacco destroys health."

    England said such packages should be replaced.

    Yang Gonghuan, China CDC deputy director, said the country's netizens are also supportive.

    She said more than 1.42 million netizens had voiced their support for a proposal of putting pictorial warnings on the cigarette packages only two weeks after the center launched the on-line survey.

    "But it is very difficult to be carried out such a proposal since the major cigarette producers, who use beautiful tobacco packages as an important means of promotion, are against the idea," Yang said.

    She urged the government to do more to help fight against tobacco in the country.

    "The government should consider not only the economic development, but also people's health," Yang said.

    World Health Organization statistics showed that tobacco kills more than five million people every year around the globe.

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    BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese tobacco control organization said Thursday that more than 20 hospitals nationwide had been certified smoke-free.

    Tobacco addiction is not only a bad habit, but a serious chronic disease, Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC) told Xinhua on Thursday.  Full story