Baidu, Gates foundations launch anti-smoking alliance

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:02 June 13 2011]
• Comments

The Baidu Charitable Foundation (The Baidu Foundation) and The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation (The Gates Foundation) founded a strategic charitable alliance here Saturday, in a bid to work for a healthy, smoke-free environment both in China and around the world.

Li Yanhong, president of Baidu company, China's top online search engine operator, and Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee of the foundation under the names of the couple, attending the ceremony, both wore a shirt that said, "Say No to Forced Smoking."

In his speech at the ceremony, Bill Gates said, "This will be a long-term, open-ended alliance. As a sponsor, Mr. Li and I would like to welcome more partners, and we expect to see more Chinese enterprises and all facets of society to focus on public health issues together."

Li Yanhong also addressed the meeting, claiming, "Living healthy and green has become a common pursuit of mankind. We hope the alliance can bring together public efforts for this global cause, so that more people can benefit from our endeavor." ' The alliance's first action is to comply with the government ban on smoking in public places and refuse forced smoking, according to a press release from the foundations.

Targeting "forced smokers," the alliance will carry out educational campaign through all channels of media to educate and promote self-awareness about the dangers of forced smoking. Moreover, it will also help existing smokers, especially those who are underage, by sharing scientific methods for quitting.

Smoking is one of the world's eight primary causes of death, leading to lung disease, cancer, heart disease, low birth rate, fetal death, tuberculosis, high mortality and many other health issues. Smoking forces many families into poverty by causing both poor health and premature death.

China ranks first in tobacco consumption and production in the world. China has 300 million smokers, and one in every three cigarettes smoked in the world is smoked in China. More than half of Chinese smokers are male; and more than 1 million people die from smoking related diseases each year.

In addition, China has 740 million "forced smokers," whose health also suffers. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that there is no safe level of second-hand smoke.