China faces dilemma

The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control has suggested changing the emphasis on public-places smoking regulation so that it is no longer something that ‘should be controlled’ but something that ‘must be banned,’ according to a China Daily report.
The Association put forward its suggestion during a panel discussion on a draft of the Promotion Law on Basic Medical Treatment and Public Health, which is being reviewed by the legislature.
The suggested revision was not only reasonable but also urgently needed because China had not made any breakthroughs in tobacco control since it signed the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, the Legal Daily said.
The country’s smoking rate had remained largely unchanged at about 27 percent, and 740 million people suffered from the effects of inhaling second-hand smoke. It was estimated that at least one million people died of smoking-related diseases in China each year.
The fight against tobacco use has been an uphill battle because the state-owned industry is a reliable source of government revenue and a large job creator, which means that it can bring its influence to bear on any efforts that might affect its business.
Last month, the China National Tobacco Corporation urged its local branches to try to fulfil the annual sales objective of 47.38 million boxes of cigarettes – each box contains 50,000 cigarettes – a sales figure that has remained stable or slightly increased during recent years.
The Legal Daily said the Healthy China 2030 plan, adopted by the central authorities in 2016, had proposed reducing the smoking rate from 27 percent to 20 percent. Anti-smoking legislation was needed to realize that objective.
China would take a big step forward in tobacco control if the suggested revision could be adopted－from ‘should be controlled’ to ‘must be banned’ – and if the types of public places where issues of second-hand smoke were most serious were specified.
‘If the revision becomes law, a number of local laws and rules on public health and tobacco control will be amended,’ the Daily said. ‘The current wording of “should be controlled” would give the local lawmakers too much space to turn a blind eye to the problem, which is an important reason why tobacco use has not been put under effective control till now.
‘Hopefully, the revision can be endorsed and strictly implemented with supporting supervisory and punitive measures, which wait to be written into the law, so as to endow the law with deterrent forces to thwart smoking in public places.
‘Also, more efforts are needed to raise the public awareness of the harm smoking can inflict on people’s health, as well as the necessity of protecting young people, particularly adolescents, from tobacco use.’