China promotes tobacco-free Olympics

Smoking will be not be allowed, even in Olympic village bars and restaurants, during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. This was announced at a World No Tobacco Day-themed program on May 29 to promote a tobacco-free Winter Olympics by the public health campaigns and health and family planning administrations of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

There are four main standards for a tobacco-free Winter Olympics: the first is overall prohibition of smoking in the Olympic village, including stadiums, bars and restaurants; secondly, no tobacco product is allowed in any games; third, the scoreboard and broadcast in games should promote the tobacco-free policy; and fourth is the prohibition of any tobacco sponsorships, according to Duan Jiali, the director of smoking control office of Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Beijing and Hebei province will work together on tobacco control promotion and education, standardize tobacco-free environmental construction, enhance the supervisory system and law enforcement and provide more convenient quit-smoking services, Duan said.

The center will also start technical support for Olympic tobacco control and strengthening the assessment of a tobacco-free environment.

The tobacco-free standards were also implemented at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.