Civil servants love their cigarettes
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More civil servants smoke, and smoke more expensive cigarettes, than medical staff and teachers, according to the latest survey by the Jiangsu provincial center for disease control.
According to the survey, civil servants smoke an average of 12.4 cigarettes a day, while medical staff smoke 10.5 and teachers 10.1 cigarettes daily.
The average smoking rate of the three groups together is 30 percent, but civil servants have the highest rate at 40 percent, while teachers the lowest at 21 percent.
The survey was conducted among medical staff, teachers and civil servants in the province's five cities - and all three groups face smoking bans or restrictions at work.
Not only do civil servants smoke more, they are also more willing to fork out more per pack.
More than 58 percent of civil servant smokers smoke cigarettes costing over 20 yuan ($2.95) per pack, while only 46 percent of medical staff smokers and 24 percent of teacher smokers smoked cigarettes in that price range.
Meanwhile, 81 percent of the smokers surveyed smoke at work - 70 percent of medical staff, 86 percent of teachers and 95 percent of civil servants.
"It is very common to see government officials consume expensive stuff like wine and tobacco, which is usually either reimbursed or received as a gift. But the country hasn't any specific regulation to stop public money from being squandered in this way," said Gu Jun, a professor of sociology at Shanghai University.
"What's more, government officials consider it quite normal. That may be the reason for such a high smoking rate among civil servants."
Gu also said it would be hard for the country to promote smoking bans in the workplace if authorities fail to end smoking in government buildings.
The survey also showed that medical staff smokers have the highest rate of success quitting smoking with 12.5 percent giving up, while teacher and civil servant smokers manage 11.7 percent and 9.2 percent respectively.
Recently, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health issued guidelines intensifying smoking control in primary and middle schools to build smoke-free campuses.
According to the guidelines, teachers should neither smoke in front of students nor offer cigarettes to other teachers. They can only smoke in a campus smoking area.
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