China's smoking ban in all enclosed public venues, effective on May 1, could be a huge challenge for, well, almost everybody, not just its 350 million smokers, the world's largest.
"Light up, and 100 yuan may go up in smoke." That was the headline of a story in China Daily last month that told how Beijing city hopes to increase the fine from 10 yuan to 100 yuan for anyone caught flouting the no-smoking ban in some buildings.
Beijing health chiefs are insisting they will use education and persuasion to discourage illegal smoking in public places, rather than use spot fines to enforce a ban that was passed to clean up the city's image for the Olympic Games next month.
Beijingers were able to watch live online footage of the city's lawmakers jousting over a draft law on smoking control on Friday morning.
China's indoor smoking ban at public venues, which took effect on Sunday, seems to have failed to ignite action against cigarettes.
With 28.1 percent of its population aged above 15 addicted to cigarettes, China faces a tough challenge to control tobacco use.
China's anti-smoking policy is ineffective. The tax on cigarettes is far too low. Worse, many fake cigarettes are freely sold in the market that contain even more harmful ingredients.
The NPC deputies and CPPCC members attending the annual sessions will exercise self-control and refrain from smoking during the meetings to firmly support the "smoke-free two sessions" proposal.
The nation's top health authority is pushing for a hike in the cigarette tax and retail prices to curb smoking in China, the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, a senior health official said.
China, the world's top producer and user of tobacco, has more than 300 million smokers, while about 740 million are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Officials are not allowed to smoke in schools, hospitals, sports venues, public transport vehicles, or any other venues where smoking is banned.
Shenzhen has witnessed large progress in banning smoking indoors recently. Teachers and parents follow the regulations not to smoke at school anymore.
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
