Following the success of last year's "Stop chewing betel nut" campaign in Yunlin County's Taihsi Township (
The Taiwan Cancer Society said it will target Mailiao Township (
Taihsi has a large number of people who chew betel nut because the practice is more or less part of local culture, health officials said.
Over the past decade in Taihsi, an average of 2,374 people per 100,000 have died of oral cancer every year, a rate second only to Mutan Township (
With more than half of Taihsi residents chewing betel nut, the Bureau of Health Promotion and the Taiwan Cancer Society began posting officials there last July to train volunteers on advising local residents to give up the habit as the first step toward preventing oral cancer.
Hahn Liang-jiunn(韓良俊), a professor emeritus at the National Taiwan University Hospital, claimed that betel nut was a popular gift in central and southern Taiwan, and that people from all walks of life have the habit.
He said about 14 percent of people in northern Taiwan chew betel nut, with the figure rising to 19 percent for southern Taiwan, 24 percent for central Taiwan and 27 percent for eastern Taiwan.
Han said that people who smoke are 18 times more likely to develop oral cancer than non-smokers, while users of betel nut are 28 times more likely to develop oral cancer than non-users.
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