China mulls stricter tobacco control

Beijing

SMOKERS who light up at indoor public areas could be fined as much as 500 yuan (S$106) and operators who don't stop them may have licences revoked under a proposed law as China considers stricter tobacco control.

Operators would be required to set up designated areas for smokers, with few exceptions such as women and children's hospitals where smoking is totally banned, according to the document drafted by the health ministry and posted on the website of the law-making State Council on Tuesday.

The proposed law, for which the government is currently soliciting public opinion, would introduce restrictions with actual penalties for flouting them, more than three years after the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a largely ineffectual ban on public smoking.

"Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke causes mainly chronic diseases that are a heavy health-care burden for the country and result in economic losses," the health ministry said in an accompanying letter to the draft law.

More than 90 per cent of people surveyed in China support smoking bans in public transport, schools and hospitals, while over 80 per cent of respondents back the bans in meeting rooms, restaurants and bars, the ministry said.

Curbing cigarette use in China comes with several cultural hurdles. China is home to about 300 million tobacco users, and cheap cigarettes are often exchanged as a social courtesy - almost like a handshake.

The drive against smoking comes as China faces rising health costs. In December last year, the government took an early step by ordering cadres to stop lighting up at official functions and in public premises such as government buildings and sporting venues.

The main training institution of China's Communist Party last December proposed legislative changes to tighten tobacco controls and curb the state cigarette monopoly's regulatory powers, signalling increasing political will to curb cigarette use.

China gets billions in annual tax revenue from the tobacco industry. The industry's regulator, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, also runs the China National Tobacco Corp, producer of 97 per cent of China's cigarettes. BLOOMBERG