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Big Tobacco Sponsors Elementary Schools in China

Slogan tells kids: “Tobacco helps you become talented”

Posted by: Editor | Sep 28, 2011

In an apparent attempt to lure young smokers, China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) is sponsoring at least 100 elementary schools in China.

CNTC financed construction of these schools, which are named after Chinese cigarette brands and sometimes bear slogans such as "Talent comes from hard work, Tobacco helps you become talented." Many of the schools also feature the company's logo of a green tobacco leaf.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco. Approximately one million smokers die each year from tobacco-related diseases in China, and approximately 100,000 people die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke. To addict replacement smokers, the industry relentlessly targets children and teens.

While tobacco advertisements are banned on Chinese TV, radio, and in newspapers, the regulation of promotions and sponsorships is nonexistent or lax. Tobacco companies take full advantage of this weakness in the law to market to children. Just last week, Yongan Tobacco Company of Fujian Province, a branch company under CNTC, donated 20 computers to Ximen Elementary School.

With this sponsorship, China is also in violation of the public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which China joined in 2005. The treaty calls for a ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. If China doesn't take action now and to protect its citizens from tobacco use by implementing the treaty's requirements, the death toll from tobacco will reach 2 million each year by 2020.