Call for full advertising ban in China

Health professionals and tobacco control experts in China have called for tobacco advertising to be outlawed “fully,” according to a story in the People’s Daily.

They are concerned that a draft amendment to the country’s advertising law fails to stipulate such a ban explicitly.

The draft amendment was reviewed at an executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, and will be submitted to the legislative body after further revisions.

According to the draft, tobacco advertisements are not allowed on the radio, in movies, on television, as part of videos, in newspapers, journals, books and electronic publications, or as part of mobile communication networks or the Internet.

Tobacco advertising is banned also in waiting rooms, theaters, meeting halls, sports gymnasiums and stadiums, libraries, cultural halls, parks, hospitals, schools, and on public transport.

Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the wording of the ban had loopholes that might be used by tobacco companies.

Meanwhile, Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Beijing-based nongovernment organization Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, said tobacco advertising had a huge negative psychological impact on the public, especially on teenagers.

“It took 20 years before the advertising law was amended, it may take another 20 years if we fail to include an explicit tobacco advertising ban in the law this time,” Wu said.

The current advertising law came into effect in 1995.