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A massive smoking-related health crisis is set to hit China, say British and
Hong Kong researchers in the current issue of the British Medical
Journal. Over the next few decades one-third of Chinese men and 5 per cent
of women will be killed by tobacco. The researchers used Hong Kong’s death
records to predict health trends in China by comparing the fate of smokers with
non-smokers. This spells disaster for a country which consumes 30 per cent of
the world’s cigarettes. “The burden on the health care system will be enormous,”
says team member Tai Hing Lam of the University…