China has insisted that it will uphold a pledge to ban smoking in public places by 2011, which it entered into as part of an international treaty.
The health ministry issued a statement clarifying that the goal to end public smoking had been arranged as part of the World Health Organisation’s Framework: Convention on Tobacco Control. China ratified the treaty when it came into force in 2005.
In the treaty, nations that signed up vowed to introduce ‘effective legislation’ as well as take other steps to protect the public from second-hand smoke in indoor public venues. This means that all public spaces and offices as well as trains and buses will become non-smoking areas.
Many Chinese cities already have laws banning smoking in public spaces, but enforcement of the bans remains patchy. Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, admitted to the Global Times that as law enforcement is not in place regulations exist ‘in name only’.
The World Health Organisation in December warned that only 17 countries have enforced bans on smoking, though 168 countries signed up to the FCTC.
China has a huge number of smokers. Out of a population of 1.3 billion, about 350 million people regularly smoke. Of all tobacco products sold worldwide, the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control estimates that the Chinese consume at least one third of these.
The association also claim that up to a million Chinese people die every year from lung cancer or heart disease directly relating to smoking.