Last Saturday marked the 21st World No Tobacco Day, with the theme of Tobacco-Free Youth.

Articles in Tuesday's China Youth Daily say the China is home to about 15 million adolescent smokers, and the smoking rate among young people is still rising.

The paper says although the majority of them hope to give up smoking sometime in the future, the government should continue to use the media outlets to caution teenagers about the dangers of smoking.

But merely telling young smokers about harmful effects of smoking is not enough to stop them from lighting up.

All public places should ban smoking, along with all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

The government is also advised to include smoking cessation services in its healthcare service system, and provide convenient, low-cost services, especially those with low incomes.

More efforts should be make to develop affordable smoking cessation medicines and tobacco substitutes, which are relatively expensive now.