The smoking rate rose to 22.3 percent in the second half of 2008, compared with 21.9 percent six months ago. / Korea Times File |
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
About 22.3 percent of Korean adults aged over 19 smoke, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said Tuesday.
According to a government survey of 1,484 males and 1,522 females aged over 19, the legal minimum age to buy cigarettes, the smoking rate rose to 22.3 percent in the second half of 2008, compared with 21.9 percent six months ago.
The rate marked 40.9 percent among men, up from 40.4 percent six months ago. The female smoking rate stood at 4.1 percent, up from 3.7 percent. A ministry official cited worsening economic conditions among the factors behind the rise.
Smoking rates have steadily fallen since 1992, when the ministry began to compile such data. It reached 39.5 percent that year ― 75.1 percent for men and 5.1 percent for women, and fell to 21.9 percent in the first half of 2008, when 40.4 percent of males and 3.7 percent of females smoked.
The ministry will come up with comprehensive steps to cut the rate after holding public hearings on anti-smoking policies in the first half of the year.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
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