Recently, a paper published by the international authoritative medical journal “The Lancet Public Health” (The Lancet Public Health) pointed out that nearly 20% of Chinese adult males died from cigarettes.
Figure: The paper was published in The Lancet-Public Health
The research was supported by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and other institutions, led by the research team of Professor Chen Zhengming from the University of Oxford, Professor Wang Chen from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Professor Li Liming from the School of Public Health of Peking University. This is the first large-scale national study in China to systematically examine the relationship between smoking and systemic diseases. A total of 510,000 Chinese adults have been followed up for 11 years.
The study analyzed the relationship between cigarettes and 470 diseases and 85 causes of death, and found that in China, cigarettes were significantly related to 56 diseases and 22 causes of death. The hidden relationship between many diseases and cigarettes is beyond imagination. Smokers know that they may suffer from lung cancer due to smoking, but they may not think that their tumors, cerebral hemorrhage, diabetes, cataracts, skin diseases, even infectious diseases and parasitic diseases may be related to cigarettes. related.
The data shows that among the survey subjects (age range 35-84 years old), about 20% of men and about 3% of women died from cigarettes. Almost all cigarettes in China are consumed by men, and research predicts that men born after 1970 will become the group most affected by the harm of cigarettes. “Currently about two-thirds of young Chinese men smoke, and most of them start smoking before the age of 20. Unless they quit smoking, about half of them will eventually die of various diseases caused by smoking.” Professor Li Liming of Peking University said in an interview.
Quitting smoking is imminent, but it is a difficult problem. According to a report by Guangming Daily in 2021, the failure rate of Chinese smokers who “quit quitting” only by willpower is as high as 90%. However, with the popularization of relevant knowledge, some smokers will choose smoking cessation clinics, and some smokers will switch to electronic cigarettes.
According to the official website of the British government, e-cigarettes will become the most commonly used smoking cessation aid for British smokers in 2022. A research paper published in “The Lancet-Public Health” in July 2021 clearly pointed out that the success rate of using e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation is generally 5%-10% higher than that of “dry quitting”, and the greater the addiction to smoking, the greater the use of e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation. The higher the success rate of quitting smoking.
Figure: The study is led by the well-known American cancer research institution “Moffitt Cancer Research Center”. The researchers will distribute popular science manuals to help smokers correctly understand e-cigarettes
The Cochrane Collaboration, an international authoritative evidence-based medical academic organization, has released 5 reports in 7 years, proving that e-cigarettes have a smoking cessation effect, and the effect is better than other smoking cessation methods. In its latest research review published in September 2021, it pointed out that 50 professional studies conducted on more than 10,000 adult smokers around the world proved that e-cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation tool. “The scientific consensus on e-cigarettes is that, while not completely risk-free, they are far less harmful than cigarettes,” said Jamie Hartmann-Boyce of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, one of the lead authors of the review.
The harm reduction effect of electronic cigarettes has also been continuously confirmed. In October 2022, the research team of the School of Pharmacy of Sun Yat-sen University published a paper stating that at the same nicotine dose, e-cigarette aerosol is less harmful to the respiratory system than cigarette smoke. Taking respiratory diseases as an example, a paper published in the well-known journal “Progress in the Treatment of Chronic Diseases” in October 2020 pointed out that smokers suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) switch to e-cigarettes, which can reduce the severity of the disease by about 50%. However, when e-cigarette users relapse to cigarettes, according to the research conclusion released by Boston University in May 2022, their risk of wheezing, coughing and other symptoms will double.
“Considering the delayed effect (of cigarette harm), the overall disease burden caused by smoking among Chinese adult male smokers in the future will be much greater than current estimates.” The author of the paper said that stricter measures for smoking control and smoking cessation should be adopted as soon as possible to save countless lives .
Post time: Feb-20-2023
