Photo 
 
 Using a wide range of sources, including in-country surveys, government statistics and World Health Organization data, researchers also found that China had the highest number of smokers in the world in 2012 with 281 million, about one-third of the world’s smoking population. The findings are significant, said Judith Mackay, senior adviser to the World Lung Foundation, because they highlight the “absolute need for China to awake and really grasp the political nettle of tobacco control.” 
 
 “The study shows that the tobacco epidemic is going to be a whole lot worse before it gets better, particularly in lower income countries,” Dr. Mackay said in a telephone interview. “If they do nothing at all there are going to be massive costs for China in terms of premature deaths, health care costs, environmental costs, economic costs, family costs — there are all manners of costs.” 
 
 Substantial population growth and unchanging smoking prevalence in populous countries such as China, Bangladesh and Indonesia help explain why since 2006 the global decline in daily tobacco smoking has decelerated. Although the nation's health ministry issued guidelines in 2011 to ban smoking in places like hotels and restaurants, they haven't been "strictly enforced," according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency. "China stands on its own in the magnitude of the problem," said Mackay.
– The world's biggest cigarette consumer is taking steps to stamp out smoking in indoor public spaces—and unlike earlier anti-smoking measures in China, officials say this one will be strictly enforced with clear penalties put in place, CNN reports. A third of all smoking worldwide takes place in the country, and "unless there is change in China, we won't proceed further in reducing the tobacco epidemic in the world," a senior adviser at the World Lung Foundation says. Smoking rates in China have dipped a little over the last few decades, but population growth means there are now more smokers in the country than even before, the New York Times finds. The average number of cigarettes smoked daily per smoker has actually risen since 1980, from 15 to 22. Unlike in other countries, however, greater independence has not caused an increase in smoking among Chinese women: Only around 4% of the country's smokers are female, down from 8% in 1980.