Malaysians Rank High in Smoking
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysians are among the heaviest smokers in the world, according to a World Health Organization official who pointed out that tobacco consumption is increasing at the rate of 5% a year.
Dr. Walter Davis said the organization’s statistics showed that in 1968 Malaysians smoked 7.8 billion cigarettes, and consumption leaped to 14.5 billion cigarettes in 1983.
An increase in tobacco consumption automatically means an increase in lung cancer cases, he said, citing a rise in hospitalized respiratory-tract cases from 888 in 1980 to 1,096 in 1984.
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