Smoking in China
[2] Tobacco control exists as smoking bans, but public enforcement is rare outside the most largest cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing.
In addition to the May 20 measure, numerous provincial and city-level administrations in China have also enacted policies to control the prevalence and health impacts of smoking within the last decade.
On October 11, 2005, China became the 78th country in the world to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an international treaty intended to reduce tobacco-related disease and death.
[8] Under the conditions of the FCTC, China is required to completely ban "promotion and sponsorship on radio, television, print media and the Internet within five years," [9] as well as to prohibit tobacco companies from sponsoring international events or activities.
The Ministry of Health had already maintained active involvement in decrying the negative effects of smoking and striving toward decreased prevalence of tobacco use.
[12] With an explicitly stated objective of "building smoke-free environments for the sake of enjoying healthy life",[13] the report has received strong support and praise from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a U.S. health advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.[12] In addition, the report suggested a strong likelihood of success for the implementation of complete public smoking bans in seven major urban areas on the basis of demonstrated widespread popular support for such measures.
[14] From 2009, Projects sponsored by Bloomberg Initiative and directed by Yang Tingzhong were designed as the first program to prohibit all forms of smoking in University campuses in China.
"[6] As polls from the 2007 Ministry of Health report showed, there is widespread public approval of smoking bans among residents of urban areas.
[13] Various health experts, activists, and public advocacy groups regard the Chinese government's escalating efforts toward tobacco policy as "surely good news for the country's smoking control progress.
For instance, local exemptions to public indoor smoking bans are often made for small businesses, particularly in the restaurant and entertainment industries.
[17] Such indeterminate enforcements of supposedly well-defined public health regulations in practice may limit the impact of de jure national smoking bans.
In practice, it is often the case that only some government offices, schools, museums, some hospitals, and sports venues effectively function as smoke-free areas.
[19] On February 12, 2011, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, announced that it will ban inappropriate smoking scenes in movies and TV shows.
[20] In light of its preparations to host the 2010 World Expo, the city of Shanghai had recently heightened its anti-smoking legislation.
Public health experts agree that it will be difficult to enforce a strict ban with the large number of smokers present in Shanghai.
In light of the passage of national tobacco initiatives and international publicity for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Beijing city government extended a public smoking ban on May 1, 2008 to include sports venues and all indoor areas of government offices, transport stations, schools and hospitals.
"[25] According to China Daily News:[25] "The survey also showed that 81.6 percent of respondents were eager to stop smoking, or had heard of family members and friends who were considering kicking the habit.
The Beijing government has also adopted a policy of persuasion, combined with a fine of up to 5,000 yuan ($730) for violating the ban, in an attempt to further encourage citizens to curtail public smoking.
[25] A direct positive public health impact of the Beijing smoking ban has manifested in the arena of fire prevention.
[26] According to People's Daily, "The smoking ban has cut the number of fires in the city sparked by cigarette butts by more than half ...
The new daily average [after the extended smoking ban] was less than half of what was reported in the first four months of this year, when the city's firefighters had to put out 325 fires caused by cigarette butts, or 2.7 per day.
[27] The public places for smoking ban included restaurants, entertainment outlets, schools, supermarkets, and governmental offices.
However, by March 2010, the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress prepared to lift the smoking ban in work places, including offices, conference rooms and auditoriums.
According to Medical News Today, seven provincial capitals in China are taking steps to ban smoking in workplaces and public places.
Responding to criticism about the current legislation not being well enforced, Wang Yu, director of the China CDC explained that "This project would create strict legislation to guarantee 100-percent smoke-free public venues and workplaces and figure out a feasible and forceful working mechanism to enforce the smoking ban.
Physicians in particular may resort to tobacco as a coping mechanism to deal with the day-to-day stress that is associated with long work hours and difficult patient interactions.
[30] Fewer smokers also believed that physicians should serve as role models for their patients and that indoor smoking in hospitals should be prohibited.
This directly causes damages to building's cleanliness and brings heavy work to cleaning personnel to clear out the cigarettes butts.
Smoking bans in lifts, public transport, cinemas, concert halls, airport terminal and escalators had been phased in between 1982 and 1997.
[citation needed] The government mentioned, upon the release of the budget in 2009, that a full ban of tobacco import and smoking is technically possible.
