Measures to halt betel nut chewing are showing results By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter The government has been successful in introducing public health measures to reduce the prevalence of betel nut chewing in men, especially among those in their 30s, researchers at the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Yang Yi-hsin (楊奕馨), an investigator at the National Institute of Cancer Research, said that more than 90 percent of oral cancer patients in Taiwan chew betel nuts, and oral cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the nation, with a standardized mortality rate of 15.04 per 100,000 population.