The percentage of Beijing smokers above 15 years old has descended 6.5 percent in the past five years. Among those smokers, the male has descended 11 percent while the female has descended 1.7 percent.
According to the statistics released by Beijing city, which did a social investigation of 2,954 smokers in March and April this year, 715 of the 1,563 male are smokers, descended near 11 percent than 1997. 112 of the 1,391 female smoke, descended 1.7 percent than 1997. Among the people above 15, the total smoking rate is 28 percent, descended 6.5 percent comparing with the figure 34.5 in 1997.
Beijing city does a investigation of its middle and primary school students every three years. The results show that the number of the middle and primary students who smoke or have smoking history decreases year after year: 38 percent in 1988; 35 percent in 1992; 33 percent in 1996 and 9.4 percent in 1999.
(Beijing Daily Group 05/17/2001)
