Beijing gives teeth to smoking ban

Smoking will be banned in all public places in Beijing starting on June 1.

The Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress passed a smoking control regulation on Friday, forbidding smoking in public places such as bars, restaurants, hotels, office buildings, vehicles and the outdoor areas of schools, hospitals and stadiums.

The regulation cements a previous rule by the municipal government curbing indoor smoking. That rule was nonbinding.

In future, violators will be fined up to 200 yuan ($32).

Higher penalties of 2,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan will be handed down to bar and restaurant owners who fail to put up no-smoking signs or who allow clients to smoke despite the regulation.

Police and urban management officers will enforce the regulation.

In addition to the smoking ban, the regulation forbids cigarette advertising and bans tobacco companies from sponsoring events.

Anti-tobacco advocates welcomed the regulation, saying Beijing's smoking ban will help get a national regulation to control smoking in public places approved.

The draft of the national regulation was published on Nov 24 for public comment.

Xu Guihua, deputy director of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, said the capital's ban sets an example for the draft of the national regulation, which will accelerate discussion of the draft.

She added the regulation is in line with the country's international tobacco control commitment.

Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, a nongovernmental organization in Beijing, applauded the regulation because it "improves public health and protects nonsmokers from secondary smoke".

But not everyone is happy about the regulation. Li Xiaoping, an engineer in Beijing who has smoked for more than 10 years, said forbidding smoking in public places is understandable, but "why in office buildings and cars?"

"When I work late, I really need one," Li said.

China is home to more than 300 million smokers, and more than 1 million people die of tobacco-related illnesses a year, according to the World Health Organization.

Even though China signed the WHO Framework Convention to Tobacco Control in 2003, it did not fulfill its commitment in the convention to ban smoking in indoor public places completely by 2011.

Several cities, including Shanghai, have issued local smoking bans, but the national regulation on smoking control is still under discussion.

wangqian@chinadaily.com.cn