China struggling with smoking rules

Health and law experts say that regional anti-smoking regulations in China lack the teeth to protect nonsmokers from secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a story in the China Daily.

China is said to be looking at a national ban on tobacco smoking in enclosed public areas. Currently, more than 10 cities have smoking regulations, all of which ban smoking in such areas.

“But implementation of the law is unsatisfactory, mostly because there is a lack of enforcement and awareness of the law,” said Wang Qingbin, associate professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, at a symposium staged by the Beijing-based tobacco control campaign ThinkTank and the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The municipal-level rules mainly targeted public businesses such as restaurants, Internet bars, hotels and movie theaters, but did not focus on individual smokers, he said.