Tobacco control measures shouldn't go up in smoke

After more than a decade of intensive efforts, China still can't declare victory in its battle against smoking. Though the percentage of smokers in China has certainly declined in the past 10 years, the absolute number of smokers remains a staggering 300 million.

Smoking was popular when I was young. As little boys, we watched adults smoking and thought it was cool. Smoking was seen as a symbol of adulthood. To show that we were no longer kids, we would pilfer cigarettes from our parents and grandparents or spend our meager pocket money to buy some ourselves. A pack cost only 10 fen back then.

Data show that the percentage of smokers in China reached a high of 33.9 percent in 1984. In other words, there were more than 350 million smokers in a country of 1.04 billion. One out of every three Chinese was a smoker.

In 1988, the World Health Organization designated May 31 as World No Tobacco Day. Although China was among the early supporters of the initiative, very few policies were introduced in the country to control the menace and insufficient measures were taken to implement those policies. One possible reason for the hesitation is that China's focus was on economic development and the tax on tobacco was too big to let go. Last year, the total tobacco-related tax in the country was more than 1.6 trillion yuan ($226 billion). Tobacco tax accounts for a big portion of the revenues of some cities, regions and provinces.

But, thanks to government campaigns and increasing social awareness, the message that "smoking is harmful to health" began to sink in. The smoking population in China remained steady at that level till a decade ago, even though the country's population increased by nearly 33 percent during the period.

A big shift happened 10 years ago when the central authorities enacted strict tobacco control laws. More than 200 cities, regions and provinces followed suit by banning smoking at workplaces and in public spaces. Individual offenders could be fined between 50 and 200 yuan while restaurants and teahouses which allowed smoking indoors could be fined as much as 30,000 yuan. Hotlines were set up and thousands of "watchdogs" were sent out to catch rule-breakers in the act.

To make it more difficult for smokers, tobacco tax has been raised significantly to make smoking a luxury. A pack of cigarettes now costs between 10 and 100 yuan — about 100 times costlier than what I paid for my first pack decades ago.

These smoking control measures have paid off. According to the Chinese health authorities, China's smoking population decreased from 27.7 percent in 2015 to 23.2 percent last year, meaning that there were approximately 60 million fewer smokers in the country.

The initiative is on the right track, but I am worried about the obstacles in the way. China has set a target of reducing its smoking population to 20 percent by 2030. This means we have to reduce our smoking population by 3.2 percentage points in the next six years. A quick calculation shows how difficult this can be. In the past 10 years, China's smoking population reduced by 4.5 percentage points. Unless we reduce the smoking population by more than 50 basis points every year, we won't be able to reach the 2030 target. Slacking off in efforts may lead to failure.

What worries me is that such slacking off is quite apparent. Every day, we see a lot of people puffing away in public no-smoking areas without any intervention. When dining out, we have to tolerate smoking neighbors even though there are "No Smoking" stickers on every table. Strolling in the street, we can't avoid seeing smokers who are polluting the whole area. A girl was insulted and beaten up recently when she confronted smokers in a public place.

We understand that for business reasons restaurant owners don't want to offend customers by stopping them from smoking in the premises. We also understand that it can be unfeasible for local administrative bodies to spend money and employ lots of hands to deal with minor offenses such as smoking. And we can only show our sympathy to the girl who got beaten up.

To ensure the effectiveness of tobacco control regulations and to honor the country's decade-long efforts, it is essential that both the public and administrators actively support and enforce these measures. Only by doing so can we make significant progress in reducing tobacco use and improving public health.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.