China Wants to Adopt Tougher Smoking Ban

Lawmakers in a China city decided to adopt a law which will ban smoking in workplaces, restaurants, cafes, bars and other indoor places.

In case this regulation will pass by the legislature, it will be the toughest of its kind in a country with the world’s largest number of smokers.

The majority of public health experts declare that the given legislation is central in tobacco-control struggle and it may give birth to a nationwide campaign that will assure a thorough protection for approximately 740 million people who are exposed to second-handsmoke.

According to statistics more than 300 million of Chinese adults smoke, and there are also a lot of smoking teenagers.  

“We hope to pass the bill in some of these days,” stated Xu Yongli, from the Municipal People's Congress of Nanchang.

The given draft regulation requires a complete ban in 11 categories of public places such as: schools, malls, public transport, medical institutes, offices, sports venues and Internet cafes ones it is adopted.

Also this ban will affect hotels, bars, cafes, restaurants, nightclubs and beauty salons from January 1, 2013.

Those owners who will break the law will be fined up to 5,000 yuan (US$758). Individuals who will smoke in smoke-free areas will be fined 50 yuan.

A lot of people and government officials state that this bill has impossible goals for a second-tier city. “Such kind of ban is new for China. We didn’t have national-level tobacco control law, it partially prohibited smoking in public places and government offices, mostly depending on local legislation.” said Huang Jinrong, a Beijing-based lawyer, who conducted various researches on tobacco control legislation.

Health experts declare that “smoke-free” means no smoking at all in inside places, and outdoor only in specially created places.  Smoke-free areas are not efficient if speaking about protection of non-smokers, because harmful particles emitted from a burning cigarette can be spreading carried throughout all building.

Currently Nanchang's legislation is facing daunting challenges in its enforcement, according to Chen Tianpeng, deputy director of Nanchang Municipal Health Bureau.

The draft law requires a considerable number of government agencies which must be responsible for monitoring the planned law, as the municipal bureau of health which should watch over medical institutes, the food and drug bureau to supervise restaurants and bars, and police to control hotels and beauty salons.

“We are concerned that all these government agencies might not enforce the law appropriately. But at the same time a unique law enforcement team is impossible, because government can’t hire so many specialists in this field” Chen stated.

Approximately 30% of Nanchang's 4.64 million citizens are smokers. It was estimated that a half of the population is exposed to second-hand smoke.

“People are not so good informed about the consequences of smoking and second-hand smoke. This happens everywhere, but most of all in China,” Dr. Sarah England said in an interview.