Sales of cigarettes in Korea declined 1.6 percent in the first six months of the year compared to a year earlier, due to a government-led anti-smoking campaign and higher prices, data showed. Korean smokers purchased 1.68 billion 20-cigarette packs in the first half of the year, compared with the previous year’s 1.71 billion packs, according to data compiled by the Finance Ministry. Starting...

Eve Cup, the third menstrual cup to gain the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s approval for sales in Korea, was heatedly received on Monday when it launched on social crowdfunding platform Tumblbug. The only campaign to begin at half past noon on the day, the launch of Eve Cup crashed the Tumblbug site due to excessive traffic. Once back online, Eve Cup reached its target of 10 million won ($8,...

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has issued a safety warning over the use of mini electric fans, a popular item in Korea during summer. “People often overlook safety when using portable fans that are small and convenient,” a senior official at the Safety Ministry said in a statement Friday, urging people to be careful. Between 2015 and 2018, a total of 40 accidents involving mini fans we...

A baby girl who was born after just 24 weeks gestation, weighing 302 grams, was released from the hospital Thursday after spending nearly five months in the neonatal intensive care unit, Asan Medical Center said. During the course of treatment, the baby’s weight reportedly dipped below 295 grams -- barely more than a 250 ml can of soda -- but has since increased to a healthy weight of 3 kilogram...

Over time, coffee has become a universal, and quick, antidote to morning sleepiness. In Korea, roughly 265 million cups of coffee, or some 500 cups per person, were consumed in 2017, according to Korea Customs Service. While coffee may be an effective solution to jolt a person awake, health experts say it may not be the best drink to go for the first thing in the morning. (FreeQration) In the ...

82 clinical trial deaths reported over five-year period

The actual smoking rate among women is likely to be nearly triple the official count of 6.4 percent, due to women's underreporting, a health professor said in a report Monday. The smoking rate was measured at 40.7 percent for men and 6.4 percent for women in 2016. According to Jeong Geum-ji of Yonsei University's graduate school of public health, the difference between men and women in the inci...

While the link between smoking and a range of cancers is well known, the World Health Organization warned Thursday there was too little awareness of tobacco's impact on the human heart. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day Thursday, the UN health agency hailed that smoking had declined significantly since year 2000, but warned that there were still far too many people indulging in the dangero...

Aging society not limited to humans, but pets as well

According to a report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, medical spending in South Korea jumped by an annual average of 6.8 percent from 2005 to 2015 The growth rate during the period outpaced the average of 2.1 percent expansion among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, marking the highest increase of the group. The spending gr...

Local coffee shops to enforce smoking ban with upcoming revision to smoking law in Korea

A group of South Korean scientists have developed a deep learning system based on artificial intelligence that can precisely predict interactions between drugs, the government said Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the team led by Lee Sang-yup of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology developed the so-called deep drug-drug interactions technology, which can m...

In the age of social media, workout routines and diet plans are easily coupled with the desire to share these efforts with friends and followers online. At the last count, more than 1 million posts each under hashtags “dietgram” and “dietmeal” in Korean have been shared on Instagram, a social platform that is quickly expanding its user base here. The word “diet” in Korean implies a wide range o...

According to a survey from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the proportion of men who smoke came to 39.3 percent in 2017, down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier. The survey was conducted with 228,381 adults here. The smoking rate has steadily fallen from 47.8 percent in 2008 to 40.3 percent in 2015, with exceptions in 2009 and 2016, the survey showed. The smoking...

Obese people are more susceptible to contracting diabetes than those who are not, a survey showed Friday. Obese people have a 156 percent greater chance of contracting diabetes than those who are not obese, according to the survey of 51,405 people carried out by a research team led by Professor Kwon Hyock-sang of Saint Mary's Hospital in Seoul. The review was carried out between 2002 and 2009. ...