Beijing health authorities vowed to strengthen supervision of indoor smoking as the number of indoor smokers rebounds in winter, stressing that officials are not exempt from the implementation of the capital's "strictest" smoking ban.
Indoor smoking is very harmful to nonsmokers, and the situation gets worse in winter, as people keep their windows closed due to chilly and windy weather, said Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.
Considering that the number of people smoking indoors has increased sharply with the onset of winter, the Beijing government launched a special campaign to tackle the issue on Monday, Wang Benjin, a deputy director of the Beijing Health Inspection Institute, told a news conference on Wednesday.
A one-month campaign initiated on Monday entails enhanced supervision and inspection of key areas such as restaurants, bars and office buildings, Wang added.
No exceptions or special privileges will be granted to government officials during the implementation of the ban, Gao said, noting that the commission has inspected 429 government bodies and State-owned enterprises and has punished 114 of them for violating the ban since it was launched on June 1.
Gao added that the commission has also inspected the workplaces of the National People's Congress, the Beijing government and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.
The regulation bans people from smoking in indoor public places, including restaurants, office buildings and public transportation vehicles. People are also banned from smoking in high-traffic areas, such as schools, hospitals, sports venues and cultural relic protection sites.
Apart from 1,000 law enforcement personnel assigned to policing the ban, about 11,000 volunteers have been recruited, Zhang Jianshu, head of the Beijing Association on Tobacco Control, said. According to Zhang, volunteers take to the streets every Wednesday to introduce the ban and convince smokers to comply.
A total of 217 companies and institutions have so far been fined a total of 543,000 yuan ($85,000), and 598 smokers have been fined a total of 30,650 yuan, according to the commission.
Individual smokers caught violating the ban can be fined up to 200 yuan, while businesses can be slapped with fines of up to 10,000 yuan.
China is home to over 300 million smokers, and more than 1 million people die as a result of tobacco-related illness in the country each year, according to the most recent figures issued by the World Health Organization.
