WHO urges China to raise cigarette prices

SHANGHAI, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A WHO official has urged China to raise cigarette prices to deter people from smoking, which causes three million deaths a year.

"The price mechanism is an effective tool in tobacco control," said Burke Fishburn, Western Pacific regional co-coordinator for the World Health Organisation's Tobacco-Free Initiative. He was speaking on the sidelines of a WHO meeting in Shanghai Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported.

To increase tax revenues and stop people from smoking, Fishburn suggested raising the tobacco tax to 60-80 percent of the retail price. The mainland's average tobacco tax rate is 46 percent of the retail price now.

With a national tobacco monopoly and high reliance on revenue from the tobacco business, more education campaigns and warning labels were needed to raise public awareness, the WHO official said.

China has 320 million smokers. Between 60 and 80 percent of the rural male population smokes, but tobacco companies are increasingly targeting women, the paper said.