IF THERE’S SMOKE THERE’LL BE TROUBLE
China is considering a ban on smoking in public places and a vigilant group of volunteers is ensuring offenders comply
China’s more than 300 million smokers may face a ban on puffing away in public places,
BEIJING // A group of anti-smoking volunteers in blue vests marched through an office building on a recent morning in China’s capital, trailed by two police officers and the building’s management. As people peered out of doorways, the volunteers turned several corners and stopped in front of a stairwell door. One of them pushed it open.
There stood an office worker, pressing a cellphone to one ear and holding a lit cigarette in his other hand. Someone had turned him in.
A stern lecture followed from the group’s leader, a stocky, 32- year- old fine arts teacher named Liu Li.
“Today we won’t punish you, but we will criticise and educate you,” Ms Liu said sternly, as the worker bowed and apologised repeatedly. “Don’t throw cigarette butts around. You must not act like this next time.”
As China considers a national ban on smoking in public places, the fight is well under way in Beijing where lighting up in restaurants and other indoor areas was banned 18 months ago.
The zealous volunteers and anti-smoking advocates have made some headway against millions of smokers and the state- run cigarette monopoly, a large and powerful force in China’s government and economy.
Cigarettes are a cultural symbol in China, where leaders dating back to Mao Zedong were wellknown smokers. Cigarettes are still frequently handed out at weddings, banquets and holiday celebrations.
The tobacco industry employs more than 300,000 people and remains a key source of revenue for the national budget. Last year, the state tobacco monopoly administration generated more than US$150 billion (Dh550bn) in tax revenues.
But tobacco extracts a huge cost as well. About 1 million deaths a year in China can be attributed to cigarettes, a figure that could triple by 2050 without greater efforts to curb the habit.
China has more than 300 million smokers and nearly half of the country’s adult males smoke, according to the World Bank.
For all of the attention given to the country’s air pollution, it is smoking that is often far more damaging and far easier to correct, said Dr Bernhard Schwartlander, who works in China as the World Health Organisation’s local representative.
“When the air is bad outside, everybody gets upset and talks about it,” said Dr Schwartlander. However, “Just a few smokers in a room in an average restaurant can cause air pollution inside that is worse than the very worst days we see in Beijing”.
Yesterday, Beijing issued its first air pollution red alert of the year as choking smog was expected to cover the city and surrounding areas in north China during the next five days.
At 8pm, half the city’s private cars will be ordered off the road, with an odd-even number plate system implemented, according to a Beijing municipal government notice. Construction sites will be closed, and some industrial plants and enterprises will limit or cease production. A red alert, issued when severe smog is expected to last more than 72 hours, is the highest of Beijing’s four-tiered, colour-coded warning system. At the behest of the WHO and other advocates, China has launched a national anti-smoking campaign supported by president Xi Jinping.
At a health conference last month in Shanghai, an official with the national health commission said it was considering a national ban on smoking in public places, possibly as soon as the end of this year. Shanghai issued an indoor smoking ban before the conference, and other cities have followed.
A network of volunteers has been trained by the government-funded Beijing Tobacco Control Association to monitor complaints and catch smokers. At a recent training for volunteers, association director Zhang Jianshu displayed an interactive map of Beijing on a flatscreen TV that was dotted with small blue sirens marking spots where a complaint was submitted through a tip-off.
Ms Li said that volunteers must pledge never to have smoked, and anyone caught lighting up would be expelled from the group.
Since the law went into effect 2,700 people have been fined, an average of fewer than five a day, according to state media. But Beijing residents almost uniformly agree the campaign has had an effect.
“A couple of years ago, you couldn’t enter any bar or restaurant without being exposed to smoke,” Dr Schwartlander said. “Today, it’s almost the absolute exception.”
Nearly half of adult Chinese males in a country of more than 300 million smokers light up