DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY—AFP / GETTY IMAGES

DEATH MARCH: Children in Calcutta show their support on World No Tobacco Day

Can Asia Kick the Habit?
	From Bhutan to Japan, the region's antismoking movement is beginning to score some startling victories. But China is proving tougher to crack
	By Liam Fitzpatrick

Posted Monday, February 28, 2005; 20:00 HKT
In the Tondo Slum, a 30-minute drive from downtown Manila, thousands of Filipinos live in sordid shacks beside the ironically named Aroma dump site. Destitute, they make a living by scavenging amid the trash that stretches into the middle distance—for this is where much of the capital's garbage ends up. The smell is the first thing that leaves you speechless: from the toxic singe of burning plastic to the reek of scattered sewage. The second is the sight of Aroma's enthusiastic smokers. Not of the skeletal granddads or of the work gangs, cigarettes permanently dangling from their lower lips. No, the genuinely startling sight is that of Aroma's child smokers, and they're everywhere. "It's not as if I'm not used to the stink," says 13-year-old Michael Rivera, explaining why he has smoked since age 5. "But today is especially stinky, and we know something inside the cigarette takes away the stink." Smoking also eases their hunger, says Michael's 16-year-old brother Eduardo, drawing hard on a cigarette. "What can we do?" he asks. "It's so much cheaper to smoke than eat."

Asia has long been the home of inveterate smokers. To millions of them, cigarettes are the stuff of daily social intercourse. Nothing is done without them—no task unrewarded, no meal concluded. Everybody knows that Asia is supposed to be the last great frontier of the tobacco industry, a place where vast numbers continue to expose themselves to the risks of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, emphysema and other smoking-related illnesses. And yet, across the region, an Asian antismoking movement is quietly but inexorably gathering strength. It isn't large yet, but it is starting to have a dramatic impact—from fresh legal wins in unlikely quarters to tough bans on smoking in public places.

Just last week, the University of Hong Kong announced the results of a government-funded study estimating that smoking costs the territory's economy $640 million a year, providing fresh ammunition for politicians and activists pushing to secure the passage of impending legislation to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Back in December, Thai smokers likewise found themselves under siege: after King Bhumibol Adulyadej expressed fears for the health of his nation's youth, the government decided to impose new measures that will limit the sale of cigarettes to 10 hours a day. Most significantly, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)—a treaty sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO)—became binding law on Feb. 27 in the first 40 countries to ratify it. A third of these countries are in Asia, and more Asian nations are expected to adopt the treaty's tough antismoking provisions over the coming months. The tobacco industry's last great frontier is suddenly starting to resemble the front line in a losing battle as a gathering legion determines to combat Asia's most preventable cause of death.

The magnitude of the challenge and the stakes involved are almost overwhelming. Of the five countries that consume the most tobacco globally, three—China, Japan and Indonesia—are in Asia (the other two are the U.S. and Russia). About 50,000 teenagers across Asia take up smoking every day, according to the WHO. China alone accounts for one in every three cigarettes smoked worldwide, and as many as 1.2 million Chinese die from smoking-related diseases annually, according to WHO statistics—as do some 30,000-40,000 Vietnamese, 52,000 Thais, 57,000 Indonesians and 90,000 Japanese. If present trends continue, about 4.2 million Asians can be expected to perish each year from smoking by 2020. Beyond the human toll, the numbers stand for extraordinary economic wastage—in wealth that will never be generated, professional expertise lost, and huge sums spent caring for the victims of tobacco—in Japan, 5% of all health-care spending goes to treating smoking-related illnesses. No wonder Asians and their governments are beginning to recognize that the situation must be addressed.

Continued...

	Asia's War With Heart Disease [May 10, 2004] Across the region, the death toll from cardiovascular disease is soaring. But the latest science shows how you can stay healthy Coffee, Tea or Nicotine Patch? [Mar. 22, 2004] The friendly skies are a whole lot cleaner these days—which is bad news for the tobacco-dependent What You Can Do to live long and well [Jul. 21, 2003] A large part of how long you'll live is out of your control. Here's the things you can change Need for Speed [Mar. 01, 2001] Methamphetamine has become Asia's drug of choice. Karl Taro Greenfeld reports on the culture of speed More Related Items | Search all issues of TIME Magazine