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BERKELEY — University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a $2.1 million federal grant Wednesday to study the economic impact of smoking prevention efforts in China, the largest consumer of tobacco products in the world. 

The five-year grant was presented by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health. 

Cigarette production in China has nearly doubled since 1982. The country now includes more than 320 million smokers, which represents one quarter of the world’s smokers. 

The study will compare disease rates among nonsmokers who live with a smoker compared to those who do not. In the vast majority of cases, the nonsmoker is a woman or child. Only 4 percent of women over 15 smoke in China, compared to 63 percent of men over 15.