China mulls national smoking ban  

公共场所无烟法规拟全面禁烟 网吧等取消吸烟区

目前，由国家卫计委、中国疾控中心拟定中的全国公共场所无烟法规，拟严格按照《世界卫生组织烟草控制框架公约》，将公共交通工具、室内工作场所，以及网吧、餐厅等室内公共场所全部定义为需要100%禁烟的公共场所。国家层面的控烟法规已纳入全国人大2013年三类立法计划。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- China is planning a national regulation banning smoking in public indoor areas, and it is expected to be enacted next year, the Beijing News said Thursday, citing an official.

Yang Jie, deputy director of Tobacco Control Office for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, made the remarks at a news briefing on the Chinese version of the Tobacco Atlas (fourth edition), a comprehensive volume of research on tobacco and smokers.

Yang said the regulation, following the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, will ban smoking in all public places, including public vehicles, indoor workplaces, Internet bars and restaurants. Specific penalties for violations will be included in the regulation, he added.

More than 10 Chinese cities currently have smoking control rules, all of which ban smoking in public indoor areas, but implementation of the law is unsatisfactory, mostly because there is a lack of enforcement and awareness about the law.

The Tobacco Atlas, published by the American Cancer Society, says more than half of Chinese males smoke, and 12 percent of deaths in Chinese males can be attributed to tobacco. Every year, 600,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke in China, most of them women and children, it said.