Challenges remain for no-smoking legislation

China's anti-smoking campaign made significant progress in 2014, thanks to national and local legislation.

Experts at a health forum in Kunming, Yunnan province, agreed on Dec 27 that the growing emphasis on the rule of law has advanced tobacco control legislation, but obstacles still block the implementation of the laws and regulations.

In January 2014, authorities issued a circular requiring officials to set an example by not smoking in public.

In November, the Beijing municipal legislature passed an anti-smoking bill to ban smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces and on public transportation. It is scheduled to take effect in June 2015.

Also in November, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the cabinet, released for public comment a draft regulation that would ban smoking in indoor public places and outdoor spaces, including schools and hospitals; all forms of tobacco advertising; sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products; and smoking scenes involving minors in film and on TV.

Li Xiaoliang, director of the Pioneers for Health Consultancy Center in Yunnan, said that since China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, the State and grassroots organizations have worked together to promote the anti-smoking cause.

But legislation restricting tobacco still lacks solid public support, since many Chinese smokers and passive smokers are not fully aware of tobacco's harm to health, Li said.

China, the world's largest tobacco maker and consumer, has more than 300 million smokers and 740 million people exposed to secondhand smoke each year.

Wu Yiqun, executive deputy director of ThinkTank, an anti-smoking advocacy group in Beijing, said the implementation of the anti-smoking regulations contradicts the draft amendment to the Advertisement Law, which is currently under review.

The draft would allow companies to advertise their products in tobacco shops, while the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the national anti-smoking draft legislation ban all forms of tobacco advertisements, Wu said.

"The only motive for advertisement, promotion and sponsorship in the tobacco industry is to sell more products, and that spells disaster for public health," she said.

"Hopefully, the advertisement law will be further modified to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship," she added.

Many law enforcers themselves are not fully aware of the harm of smoking, said Shen Shouwen, a professor at Yunnan University in Kunming.