Pressure mounts for imposition of tobacco control law in China

China’s top legislature is starting to consider whether it should push ahead with the country’s first national tobacco control law, according to a Xinhua Newswire story quoting a report released yesterday.

It was necessary to enact laws to control the dangers of smoking, said the report adopted at the closing session of a bimonthly meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

But it might take some time to enact a control law. The report added that tobacco control should be included in ‘future legislation work plans after proper preparation’.

So far, according to the Xinhua story, only a few provinces and cities have enacted local legislation on public smoking bans, and no law has been adopted at the national level.

During the NPC’s plenary session in March, 90 NPC deputies submitted three bills describing a law on the prevention and control of tobacco hazards, according to a report of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee (ESCHC) of the NPC.

The report says, too, that 139 deputies put forward another four bills calling for new laws on tobacco smoke-free public areas.

The central government has pledged to introduce a public tobacco smoking ban in its 12th five-year plan period, which runs until 2015.