Shanghai stubs out smoking indoors, driving push for national ban

BEIJING - Chinese lawmakers and political advisors in Beijing for their annual meetings said they will push for a national indoor smoking ban.

Shanghai on Wednesday became the latest major Chinese city to ban smoking in all indoor public venues, workplaces, and public transportation.

Smokers who break the ban can be fined up to 200 yuan (29 U.S. dollars), and venue owners may be fined up to 30,000 yuan. Shen Jinjin, a national lawmaker, said local experiments had paved the way to roll out the ban nationwide.

Deputies to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) and members of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) gathered in Beijing for their fifth annual sessions opening later this week.

Shen, a disease control official in eastern Jiangsu Province, said smoking control in public places is the most effective way to reduce second-hand smoke exposure.

There are over 300 million smokers and 740 million people exposed to second-hand smoke in China. Tobacco control legislation faced strong resistance in the past. Only recently has it received more support thanks to growing public health awareness.

Kong Qian, mother of a two-year-old in Shanghai, said her family often spots smokers puffing in restaurants.

"Sometimes I try to tell them to stub out their cigarettes," she said. "If they don't, I walk away."

"Now we finally have a legal basis to defend ourselves," Kong said.

Shanghai is not the first major Chinese city to issue such a ban. Beijing enforced its own ban nearly two years ago.

Lawmakers like Shen said such a ban should go beyond big cities to the rest of the country for the sake of people's health.

In November 2014, the legal affairs office of the State Council solicited public opinion for the first draft of a smoking control regulation. To date the draft is still in the making. Health authorities said earlier that they would continue to promote deliberation of the draft this year.

Yue Bingfei, a CPPCC member and medical expert, has for years submitted tobacco control proposals at the annual two sessions. He said he will continue to push for a national smoking ban this year.

"CPPCC members in the healthcare field have reached a consensus in banning smoking in indoor public places," he said.

China has set a target to reduce the smoking rate among people aged 15 and above to 20 percent by 2030 from the current 27.7 percent, according to the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint issued by the central authorities last October.

"A national smoke-free law will protect people's health to a large extent and help realize the target set out by the blueprint," said Feng Danlong, another CPPCC member.