Beijing students have easy access to tobacco

Students in Beijing, China, have easy access to tobacco products and are regularly exposed to tobacco advertising, according to a story in The China Daily citing a new report.

Regulations that took effect on June 1 banned tobacco sales to minors and all tobacco sales within 100 meters of schools.

But the report, issued on Tuesday by the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention and ThinkTank, an NGO committed to tobacco control, said that cigarette stores had been found within 100 meters of more than 25 percent of primary and middle schools.

In addition, the report said, nearly 85 percent of those tobacco shops had been caught selling cigarettes to minors, while tobacco advertising had been ‘prevalent’ at tobacco stores close to schools, which also violated the new national law.

The report looked at 1,570 schools during April, May and November, but it wasn’t clear from the story whether or not the incidents recorded as violations all occurred after June 1.