Recently, the theme promotion activity of tobacco control action and the special action for youth tobacco control were launched in Beijing, and a proposal for China's tobacco control action was issued to the whole society. The proposal specifically proposed that we should pay attention to young people as a key group, create a good social environment for young people to stay away from tobacco, stop selling tobacco products to minors, reduce the number of film and television tobacco scenes, strengthen the education and management of smoking control among young people, create smoke-free schools, advocate that young people should not smoke, be healthy, and be fashionable, so as to effectively reduce the increase of new smokers.
Keeping teenagers away from tobacco is the key to tobacco control, and it is a radical solution to tobacco control. According to a survey, more than half of smokers in China start smoking before the age of 20. Teenagers have strong curiosity and are not easy to establish awareness of long-term chronic hazards, so once they start smoking, they are very likely to become addicted and become lifelong smokers, which will continue to cause damage to the body. The Healthy China Action (2019-2030) clearly proposes to reduce the smoking rate of people over 15 years old to 20% by 2030. Only by taking effective measures to reduce teenagers' attempts or exposure to tobacco can the number of new smokers be effectively reduced and the overall smoking rate be reduced.
In order to promote adolescents to stay away from tobacco, individuals and families should be fully aware of the health risks brought by tobacco (including electronic cigarettes). Teenagers should be the first responsible person for their own health, refuse to smoke the first cigarette, and actively take action to quit smoking; Parents should create a good family environment to protect their families, especially children and adolescents, from the harm of tobacco.
In order to promote young people to stay away from tobacco, the whole society should continue to create a good atmosphere for tobacco control, strengthen the establishment of smoke-free schools and smoke-free public places, strengthen health publicity, advocate smoke-free culture and healthy fashion, focus on youth smoking, and strive to create an environment for young people to stay away from tobacco.
In order to promote young people to stay away from tobacco, the government and relevant institutions should actively introduce and implement regulations and measures to protect the public, especially young people, from the harm of tobacco, prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors, improve the supervision of electronic cigarettes, increase tobacco taxes and prices, reduce the number of television dramas and tobacco scenes, and strengthen the education and management of tobacco control among young people.
The 2014 China Youth Tobacco Survey showed that the youth tobacco use rate was 6.9%, and the trial tobacco use rate was 19.9%. The results of the 2018 China Adult Tobacco Survey show that the smoking rate of people aged 15 to 24 is 18.6%. Teenagers are the future of the country. As the top priority of tobacco control, more attention should be paid to them. The release of this initiative is an important measure to realize the strategy of smoke-free China and healthy China, and also an important guarantee to achieve the goals of the "Healthy China Action (2019-2030)" tobacco control action.
