Putting out the cigarettes

Amendments to public-smoking law would expand penalties to venues, individuals

The city of Shanghai is set to approve 13 amendments to its six-year-old public-smoking law. If passed, the local laws would expand the municipality's no-smoking areas and authorize the city's enforcement units to impose on-the-spot fines to both venues and individuals for violations.

The draft of amendments was submitted in July to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, with an aim to bringing the law in compliance with an international treaty on tobacco control, the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Following a three-week period for public comment, experts and authorities working on the amendments attended a panel discussion earlier this month organized by the Health Communication Institute at Fudan University and Shanghai Municipal Health Promotion Committee.

The current law, enacted in 2010, bans smoking in 13 types of public places and areas open to the public, such as schools, hospitals and shopping malls; some venues, like restaurants and public transportation hubs, are allowed to set aside smoking rooms and sections.

On the panel, Yang Yin, a professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the amendments would expand the no-smoking areas to fully encompass FCTC guidelines.

"The core of the amendments is to ban smoking in all indoor public areas. It has made a big leap to meet the same level of the Beijing and FCTC guidelines by adding two more area types to the no-smoking zones," Yang said.

One area covers food and beverage service establishments. "If a restaurant has an area larger than 150 square meters or has more than 75 seats, it is allowed to set up smoking sections. And now we are abandoning that section," Yang said.

The other closes a loophole in places of employment. Currently, it's illegal to smoke in a shared workspace; the new definition would include the entire workplace, with an eye to forbidding company employees with their own offices from simply shutting the door and lighting up.

Also, more outdoor public spaces are included in the amendments. The draft expands the law's reach to include performance venues' stages and audience seats and waiting areas at public transportation hubs.

The amendments also cover punishment. Law-enforcement personnel would be able to issue fines on the spot. Initial fines for venues would range from 2,000 yuan ($ 300.91) to 10,000 yuan. In more serious circumstances, the level would range from 10,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.

Furthermore, individual violators in no-smoking areas could face fines from 50 yuan to 200 yuan.

Lu Bing is with the Integrated Law Enforcement on Cultural Market, one of the 11 departments that are to enforce the law. Lu told the panel that the best part of the amendments is simplifying enforcement procedure and cutting down enforcement costs.

"First of all, indoor public areas are totally smoke-free, so we don't have to even make a judgment in those cases. Secondly, it removes the premise of warnings before enforcement," Lu said.

Lu also pointed out some difficulties they have.

"The law enforcement personnel is still insufficient. We have only 418 people. It is a small team," Lu said.

She added that administratively, response time is slow. "We are not able to be on site within 5 minutes like police," Lu said.

Li Zhongyang, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Health Promotion Committee, said at the panel discussion, "we have been talking about the dangers of smoking to our health. If we don't amend the current regulation or follow the FCTC, many people in Shanghai can't protect their health when threatened by smoking. With this amendment, everyone can stand and speak for himself that there is a law in Shanghai, that you are not allowed to smoke indoors. It will affect health and our right as a citizen."