PHNOM PENH, May 20 (Xinhua) -- 1.4 million adult Cambodians smoke cigarettes and other 550,000 people use smokeless tobacco (betel quid), according to a National Adult Tobacco Survey 2011 released on Friday.
The figure showed that the smoking prevalence has been declined from 48 percent in 2006 to 42.5 percent in 2011 among people age 18 and older; however, the absolute number of tobacco smokers and users in Cambodia remains the same as the number of those in the first survey in 2006.
The survey, conducted by the Ministry of Planning’s National Institute of Statistics, was applied on 15,615 adults who had been selected from 6,000 households nationwide.
More than 90 percent of the respondents believed that smoking is harmful to their health and 56 percent of the smokers does not interest in quitting smoking.
81 percent said that the increase in tax on tobacco products would lead to a price increase of these tobacco products and make them less affordable.
It is estimated that 99 million U.S. dollars has been spent for cigarettes and tobacco annually, said the survey.
Cambodia has the population of 14.3 million. Of the figure, 7.5 million people are adults.
Pieter Van Maaren, representative of World Health Organization to Cambodia, said during the survey release that one critical step to reduce tobacco consumption is legal framework and the other is raising the tax on tobacco products.
“Price and tax increases are the most effective measures to reduce the number of death caused by tobacco use,” he said, adding that tobacco tax rates are still low in Cambodia compared to the countries in the region. (Nguon Sovan)
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