This is the first book that analyzes tobacco control policies in China from the perspectives of economics and health. For readers interested in the economic aspects of tobacco control policy issues not only in China but also in other developing countries, this book provides a comprehensive analytical and empirical framework addressing key debated issues.This book covers a range of interesting topics from the prevalence of smoking in China, health and economic burden of smoking in China, demand for cigarettes and taxation in China, the role of tobacco on farming, the tobacco industry and the World Trade Organization, poverty and smoking in China, to future challenges of tobacco control for the Chinese government.

This book fills a major gap in research into smoking and tobacco control in China. In recent decades, few studies have explored the significance of geographical factors and the role they have played either in affecting the prevalence of smoking or in tobacco control responses to the smoking epidemic in China. In light of this, the book investigates the importance of national, regional and local environmental factors affecting smoking in China. It shows how geographical, social and institutional contexts have influenced the implementation and success of tobacco control initiatives, and situates smoking trends in China in a broader global context. The authors synthesize Chinese and western research on the smoking epidemic and uniquely focus on the importance of environmental factors and Chinese cultural perspectives in understanding smoking behaviour and the ineffectiveness of many tobacco control initiatives, especially how these conflict with Chinese economic policy. The book is aimed at academic and policy audiences both internationally and inside China, and will be of interest to a wide audience, not only geographers, but also epidemiologists, sociologists and others working in public health.

A favorite icon for cigarette manufacturers across China since the mid-twentieth century has been the panda, with factories from Shanghai to Sichuan using cuddly cliché to market tobacco products. The proliferation of panda-branded cigarettes coincides with profound, yet poorly appreciated, shifts in the worldwide tobacco trade. Over the last fifty years, transnational tobacco companies and their allies have fueled a tripling of the world's annual consumption of cigarettes. At the forefront is the China National Tobacco Corporation, now producing forty percent of cigarettes sold globally. What's enabled the manufacturing of cigarettes in China to flourish since the time of Mao and to prosper even amidst public health condemnation of smoking? In Poisonous Pandas, an interdisciplinary group of scholars comes together to tell that story. They offer novel portraits of people within the Chinese polity—government leaders, scientists, tax officials, artists, museum curators, and soldiers—who have experimentally revamped the country's pre-Communist cigarette supply chain and fitfully expanded its political, economic, and cultural influence. These portraits cut against the grain of what contemporary tobacco-control experts typically study, opening a vital new window on tobacco—the single largest cause of preventable death worldwide today.

This book comprehensively covers the science and policy issues relevant to one of the major public health issues in China. It pulls together the prevalence pattern of tobacco use in different population and burden of the myriad of tobacco-related diseases. The book pays more attention to review the successes and failures of tobacco control policies in China, including the protect peoples from second-hand smoke, comprehensive banning tobacco advertisement promotion and sponsor, regulation of the contents of tobacco products and low tar cigarettes, warn about the dangers of tobacco, support for smokers to quit, and increasing tobacco taxation and price, as well as monitor and assessment on tobacco use and implement of prevention policy under the international background of tobacco control. The book analyse and explain the influence factors, especially interference from tobacco industry with public management theory frame for promoting tobacco control policies and looks at lessons learnt to help set health policy for reducing the burden of tobacco-related diseases. It is a helpful reference for experts in public health and epidemiologists in tobacco control, advocators and policy maker.

This report considers the biological and behavioral mechanisms that may underlie the pathogenicity of tobacco smoke. Many Surgeon General's reports have considered research findings on mechanisms in assessing the biological plausibility of associations observed in epidemiologic studies. Mechanisms of disease are important because they may provide plausibility, which is one of the guideline criteria for assessing evidence on causation. This report specifically reviews the evidence on the potential mechanisms by which smoking causes diseases and considers whether a mechanism is likely to be operative in the production of human disease by tobacco smoke. This evidence is relevant to understanding how smoking causes disease, to identifying those who may be particularly susceptible, and to assessing the potential risks of tobacco products.

Economic costs attributable to smoking in China : update and an 8-year comparison, 2000-2008 / Lian Yang, Hai-Yen Sung, Zhengzhong Mao, Teh-wei Hu, and Keqin Rao -- Secondhand smoke exposure at home in rural China / Tingting Yao, Hai-Yen Sung, Zhengzhong Mao, Teh-wei Hu, and Wendy Max -- The healthcare costs of secondhand smoke exposure in rural China / Tingting Yao, Hai-Yen Sung, Zhengzhong Mao, Teh-wei Hu, and Wendy Max -- Quantity, quality, and spatial price variation of tobacco : demand analysis of household survey data in China / Yuyu Chen and Weibo Xing -- The effect of cigarette prices on brand-switching in China : a longitudinal analysis of data from the ITC China survey / Justin S White, Jing Li, Teh-wei Hu, Geoffrey T Fong, and Yuan Jiang -- The heterogeneous effects of cigarette prices on brand choice in China : implications for tobacco control policy / Jing Li, Justin S. White, Teh-wei Hu, Geoffrey T. Fong, and Yuan Jiang -- The epidemic of gift giving : a social barrier to tobacco control in China / Xiulan Zhang, Steve Lin and Teh-wei Hu -- The role of taxation in tobacco control and its potential economic impact in China / Teh-wei Hu, Zhengzhong Mao, Jian Shi, and Wendong Chen -- Recent tobacco tax rate adjustment and its potential impact on tobacco control in China / Teh-wei Hu, Zhengzhong Mao, and Jian Shi -- Can increases in the cigarette tax rate be linked to cigarette retail prices? : solving mysteries related to the cigarette pricing mechanism in china / Song Gao, Rong Zheng, and Teh-wei Hu -- The potential effects of tobacco control in China : projections from the China Simsmoke simulation model / David Levy, Ricardo L Rodríguez-Buño, Teh-Wei Hu, and Andrew E Moran -- The consequences of tobacco tax on household health and finances in rich and poor smokers in China : an extended cost-effectiveness analysis / Stéphane Verguet, Cindy L Gauvreau, Sujata Mishra, Mary MacLennan, Shane M Murphy, Elizabeth D Brouwer, Rachel A Nugent, Kun Zhao, Prabhat Jha, and Dean T Jamison -- WHO framework convention on tobacco control in China : barriers, challenges and recommendations / Teh-Wei Hu, Anita H. Lee, and Zhengzhong Mao -- Tobacco control in China : from policy research to practice and the way forward / Teh-wei Hu and Xiulan Zhang

"Tobacco has been pervasive in China almost since its introduction from the Americas in the mid-sixteenth century. One-third of the world's smokers--over 350 million--now live in China, and they account for 25 percent of worldwide smoking-related deaths. This book examines the deep roots of China's contemporary "cigarette culture" and smoking epidemic and provides one of the first comprehensive histories of Chinese consumption in global and comparative perspective"--Provided by publisher.