Public health experts and tobacco companies alike are closely watching every aspect of the Tobacco vs. Health battle in China. To a cigarette salesman, China is a huge, tempting market of potential customers for their addictive products. Two-thirds (67%) of that nations men already smoke, but very few women (4%) or children do—making them the largest new market for cigarettes in the world, numbering in the hundreds of millions.

Public health experts see a disaster in the making. They say it's critical that smoking rates for China's women and children do not rise. "The greatest single opportunity for prevention of non-communicable disease in the world would be to prevent a rise in smoking among girls and women in China," wrote Judith Mackay, MD, an advisory committee member of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control.

The following statistics from the World Health Organization show the vast number of Chinese citizens already affected by tobacco and tobacco-related diseases.

• One of every three cigarettes consumed worldwide is smoked in China.
• About 3,000 people die every day in China due to smoking.
• There are more than 300 million Chinese smokers – roughly the same amount as the entire US population. They consume an estimated 1.7 trillion cigarettes per year – or 3 million cigarettes every minute.
• In 1990, 68% of male physicians were smokers and 65% of teachers.
• Smoking contributes to four of the five leading causes of death in China.

Tobacco sales in China bring the government $12 billion in tax money each year, yet it spends next to nothing to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco. So it's no surprise that many Chinese people don't even know that smoking causes lung cancer.

With its vast numbers of smokers and potential smokers, China is the target of an aggressive campaign by multinational tobacco companies who want a piece of the market. But China could also be a leader in the fight against the global tobacco pandemic by embracing the regulations of the WHO tobacco control treaty expected this spring.