SCMP-Smoking ignites concern

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Monday, September 6, 1999
BURMA

Smoking ignites concern
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon

Health officials have expressed "grave concern" at the rising number of
smokers, including nearly half the country's young people.
Speaking at an anti-tobacco seminar on Saturday, the Health Minister,
Lieutenant-General Ket Sein, said the number of smokers was alarming, and
many of those lighting up were schoolchildren.

"What is of grave concern in Myanmar [Burma] is the fact that about 44.6 per
cent of youths between 10 and 20 years of age smoke," he said.

He quoted figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that show smoking
among Burmese adults had grown from 38 per cent of the population in 1973 to
46.6 per cent in 1993.

WHO also said adults each year smoked between 2,000 and 3,000 cigarettes,
cigars and cheroots.

The minister urged doctors and experts to research the problem and suggest
measures to combat it.