China mulls national smoking ban  

公共場所無煙法規擬全面禁煙 網吧等取消吸煙區

目前，由國家衛計委、中國疾控中心擬定中的全國公共場所無煙法規，擬嚴格按照《世界衛生組織煙草控制框架公約》，將公共交通工具、室內工作場所，以及網吧、餐廳等室內公共場所全部定義為需要100%禁煙的公共場所。國家層面的控煙法規已納入全國人大2013年三類立法計劃。[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.