City hopes to get tough on smoking
Source: Xinhua |
February 24, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RENOWNED health and legal experts from Shanghai and Beijing have been invited to attend a legislation seminar tomorrow to lobby for the passage of a smoking ban in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, that has been touted as the toughest in the country.
The Regulation on the Control of Harm Posed by Second-hand Smoke was shelved after it went through a second reading by Nanchang's legislative body in December.
It is rare for a draft regulation to be read twice and then shelved before a local legislature votes on it. Those who opposed the bill said it was too "tough" and "difficult to enforce" in China even though it met the recommendations of the World Health Organization's smoke-free initiative.
Li Ai, deputy director of the Jiangxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the seminar organizer, said yesterday that health and legal experts from Beijing and Shanghai will discuss and debate the obstacles of smoke-free legislation with Nanchang's lawmakers and experts.
Li said the regulation provides the most comprehensive protection from second-hand smoke in the country and its passage will accelerate the drafting of a national law on tobacco control.
If enacted, Nanchang's draft will ban smoking in 11 categories of public places, including offices, schools, medical institutes, public transport, shopping malls, sports venues and Internet cafes.
The regulation also requires the ban to be extended to hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, beauty salons, mahjong houses and other entertainment venues beginning on January 1, 2013. Wet markets are also included.
The regulation was watered down during the second reading but health experts said they will lobby for the passage of the original version.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco. There are about 350 million smokers across the nation.
Deaths caused by smoke-related illnesses are predicted to triple to 3.5 million by 2030, said an experts' report released last month.
A report titled Tobacco Control and China's Future blasted the tobacco industry for interfering in policy making related to tobacco control during the past five years.
The Regulation on the Control of Harm Posed by Second-hand Smoke was shelved after it went through a second reading by Nanchang's legislative body in December.
It is rare for a draft regulation to be read twice and then shelved before a local legislature votes on it. Those who opposed the bill said it was too "tough" and "difficult to enforce" in China even though it met the recommendations of the World Health Organization's smoke-free initiative.
Li Ai, deputy director of the Jiangxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the seminar organizer, said yesterday that health and legal experts from Beijing and Shanghai will discuss and debate the obstacles of smoke-free legislation with Nanchang's lawmakers and experts.
Li said the regulation provides the most comprehensive protection from second-hand smoke in the country and its passage will accelerate the drafting of a national law on tobacco control.
If enacted, Nanchang's draft will ban smoking in 11 categories of public places, including offices, schools, medical institutes, public transport, shopping malls, sports venues and Internet cafes.
The regulation also requires the ban to be extended to hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, beauty salons, mahjong houses and other entertainment venues beginning on January 1, 2013. Wet markets are also included.
The regulation was watered down during the second reading but health experts said they will lobby for the passage of the original version.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco. There are about 350 million smokers across the nation.
Deaths caused by smoke-related illnesses are predicted to triple to 3.5 million by 2030, said an experts' report released last month.
A report titled Tobacco Control and China's Future blasted the tobacco industry for interfering in policy making related to tobacco control during the past five years.
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