[news, NY Times] Vietnam Men Have Highest Smoking Rate, Research Says

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

New York Times, June 4 1997
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          Vietnam Men Have Highest Smoking Rate, Research Says


          By BARNABY J. FEDER

          [C] HICAGO -- Nearly 73 percent of Vietnamese men are
              smokers, the highest rate in the world, according to
          research to be published Wednesday in The Journal of the
          American Medical Association.

          While consistent with previous reports showing very high
          smoking rates among Asian men compared with the rest of
          the world, the Vietnamese figures are especially
          alarming, said Christopher N.H. Jenkins, a public health
          researcher at the University of California, San
          Francisco, who supervised the research, because they
          reflect the impact of intense marketing campaigns by
          both Vietnamese and international tobacco companies that
          have moved into the local market.

          "This is more evidence that the negotiations over the
          future of the tobacco industry currently under way in
          the United States need to be broadened to cover its
          future behavior overseas," Jenkins said.

          Vietnam has tougher restrictions on tobacco advertising
          than many countries. It also bans cigarette imports,
          forcing multinational companies eager to court the 72
          million Vietnamese to enter joint ventures with the
          state-owned Vietnam National Tobacco Corp.

          And, as one of the world's poorer nations, Vietnam has
          many smokers who cannot afford foreign brands, which
          sell for up to twice as much as the most expensive
          domestic cigarettes.

          But that has not discouraged international tobacco
          companies from investing in what they see as a market
          capable of growing far more rapidly than that of
          developed nations.

          Among the tactics described in the article in the
          Journal of the American Medical Association, which has
          its headquarters here, are widespread distribution of
          T-shirts, umbrellas and other items with brand logos;
          sponsorship of sports and cultural events, and the
          hiring of young women to distribute free samples in
          hotels and at public events.

          Tobacco critics said the public health problems
          reflected in the new research, which was conducted in
          1995, are similar to those in many developing countries,
          although every country has its peculiarities. In
          Vietnam, for example, women have one of the lowest
          smoking rates in the world, 4.3 percent.


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