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Restaurants in Beijing urged to ban smoking
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-01-31 14:31
The Beijing Disease Control and Prevention Center urged on Tuesday the 40,000 restaurants in the Chinese capital to ban smoking on their premises, according to a Xuinhua News Agency report.
While most of the large restaurants offering Chinese and Western cuisine and some five-star hotels in Beijing are already in the process of banning smoking, in too many more modest restaurants, smoke is still spoiling the pleasures of the table and harming the health of customers and personnel, complained Feng Ailan, health education expert of the center.
About 27 percent of Beijingers are smokers and the rest has to put up with the dangers of passive smoking, Feng said. Restaurants should respect the rights of non-smokers and protect the health of the majority by providing a clean and smoke-free environment, she added.
Regulations on smoking in restaurants and bars have been passed in Turkey and Iran, while legislators in the Netherlands, Belgium and France have imposed non-smoking areas in restaurants, hotels and bars. All restaurants in Hong Kong have taken smoking control measures since the first of January.
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