China anti-tobacco efforts failing, officials say

BEIJING (AP) — Efforts to curb tobacco use in the world's most populous nation have had no real impact, and 301 million Chinese are still smoking, China's Center for Disease Control said in a report.

A survey of more than 13,000 people earlier this year found no significant improvement in the country's smoking rate since 2002, China's CDC said in a joint statement released Tuesday with the World Health Organization and the United States CDC.

The survey also found that 72.4 percent of nonsmokers reported being exposed to secondhand smoke.

Though China has pledged to make indoor public places, workplaces and public transport smoke-free by early next year, 63 percent of those surveyed said they had seen people smoking in public places or at work in the 30 days before they were interviewed.