Asian countries are in the early stages of a tobacco smoking epidemic with habits mirroring those of the US from past decades -- setting the stage for a spike in future deaths from smoking-related diseases warn researchers. Using long-term data from cohort studies from mainland China India Japan South Korea Singapore and Taiwan the researchers from the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville Tennessee said that future deaths were likely to echo the pattern that occurred in the US as the popularity of smoking increased during and after World War II which resulted in lung cancer mortality peaking around 1990.
