National smoking indoors ban backed

CHINESE lawmakers and political advisers in Beijing for their annual meetings said they will push for a national indoor smoking ban.

Shanghai on Wednesday became the latest major Chinese city to ban smoking in all indoor public venues, workplaces, and public transportation. Smokers who break the ban can be fined up to 200 yuan (US$29), and venue owners face fines of up to 30,000 yuan.

Shen Jinjin, a national lawmaker, said local experiments had paved the way to roll out the ban nationwide.

Deputies to the 12th National People’s Congress and members of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference gathered in Beijing for their fifth annual sessions.

Shen, a disease control official in eastern Jiangsu Province, said smoking control in public places is the most effective way to reduce second-hand smoke exposure.

There are more than 300 million smokers and 740 million people exposed to second-hand smoke in China. Tobacco control legislation faced strong resistance in the past. Only recently has it received more support thanks to growing public health awareness.

Shanghai is not the first major Chinese city to issue such a ban. Beijing enforced its own ban nearly two years ago.

Lawmakers said such a ban should go beyond big cities to the rest of the country for the sake of people’s health.

In November 2014, the legal affairs office of the State Council solicited public opinion for the first draft of a smoking control regulation.

The draft is still in the making. Health authorities said earlier that they would continue to promote deliberation of the draft this year.