Editorials

Tobacco control

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-18 07:45

Dongpo District of Meishan city, Sichuan province, has exposed itself to ridicule with a decree on smoking. It asks its officials at government institutions to make up their mind: quit puffing or their job.

No tobacco puffers will be allowed to smoke inside all public places from January 2011, and Minister of Public Health, Chen Zhu, has appealed to the ministries to be role models for the rest of the country.

Related readings:  Beijing to ban indoor public smoking  No-smoking activities held in China  Indoor smoking rule too heavy  Health ministry bans smoking in its building

Government departments should be praised for asking their officials to take the lead in stopping smoking in their workplaces. As a matter of fact, all civil servants should do something to make their workplaces smoke free.

The World Health Organization Convention on Tobacco Control has been in force in China for four years. But the treaty has never worked seriously. The production and sales of tobacco have been going up rather than down - tobacco consumption is a very important source of many local governments' revenue.

This makes China's tobacco control mission impossible. The tobacco sector turned in taxes and profit of 513.11 billion yuan ($75.46 billion) to the State in 2009, a year-on-year increase of 12.2 percent. Some officials from the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration warned that a ban on smoking would impact stability, making a joke of the convention by turning a collective blind eye to the prosperity of the tobacco industry.

We're expecting the smoking ban in all public places to make the air noticeably cleaner and clearer. But it is more realistic to let individuals choose whether they smoke in their private residences or not.

(China Daily 08/18/2010 page8)