"As smokers are becoming younger, this percentage will soar to 33 percent by 2050. That means about half of the male smokers shall die of smoking-related diseases," Yang said.

By 6 p.m. Monday, more than 5,000 netizens voted on Sohu.com, a major portal in China, to support the tobacco control office's appeal.

But tobacco companies will have to worry about their profit if the proposal is adopted.

"Although it is in line with the International practice and will be inevitable, such a move will definitely impact the tobacco sales in the long run," said Wen Tao, a senior official with the Hongta Group, one of the country's leading tobacco producers based in southwest Yunnan Province.

China inked the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2003.

The convention stipulates that on packs of tobacco, consequences of smoking must be clearly and strikingly stated. The words or pictures shall take up no less than 30 percent of the entire packing.

At a WHO conference in South Africa last year, China was bestowed with an ash tray as award, which sarcastically implied the government's passiveness in smoking-control.

To fulfill its pledge, China changed many cigarette packs before this past January 9, but experts believed the efforts far from enough.

"On the one hand, the color of the warning characters is similar to that of the background, and the warnings are sometimes in English which many people could hardly understand," Wu said.

"On the other hand, it is clich especially to those with little education to say 'smoking is harmful'," she said. "The point is, what harm does it make."

Shen Minrong, associate professor with the law department of Capital University of Economics and Business, said many companies only care about their profit.

"Surely a pack with an ornamental column or a dragon sells better than those with disgusting pictures," he said.

It is improper, however, to print China's totem on products which are not good for consumers, he said. "Besides, the profit is gained at the price of people's health."

Shen also believed that changing the pack could also help preventing corruption.

Research by Cui Xiaobo, associate professor with the Capital Medical University, showed that 12 percent of the smokers in the country didn't buy cigarettes themselves--their cigarettes were given by others.

A netizen has proposed a more striking warning design: on the cigarette pack there is a Chinese character "shou", or longevity. When the box is opened, the character is folded. It in Chinese is considered as "zhe shou", which means the life span is shortened.

"Of course nobody would give or receive a gift which shortens the life span," Shen said.

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Editor:Yang Jie