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Wang Fei has been smoking for more than 30 years, since he was at school.
Wang was first attracted by people smoking in films and felt it was the fashionable thing to do along with his pals. Today he smokes two packs a day, but finds that there are fewer places where he can now light up as smoking bans in hotels, restaurants and offices become more prevalent.
“On many occasions, when I smoke in public places, I can feel many people glaring at me and I had to stub out my cigarette,” Wang told ChinAfrica, adding that the best place for him to smoke is in the kitchen at home where the stove’s extractor fan can suck up the smoke.
This big squeeze on smokers is a worldwide campaign committed to preventing non-smokers from inhaling second-hand smoke and improving the world’s health bill.
a year ago, on May 1, 2011, China’s Ministry of Health announced the banning of smoking at in-door public places according to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a binding international treaty issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Though Wang thinks the announcement helped to reduce the space for smokers, many others believe that the ban has been a damp squib due to poor implementation.
“I don’t see any effects coming out of the ban in the past year. a colleague still smokes in my office and I found no effective ways to stop him,” said Xiao Wei, editor of a Beijing-based magazine.
Xiao puts on a personal protest by wearing a protective facemask while at work.
It’s not only at work where Xiao gets smoke up his nose.
“I often go to restaurants and see many people smoking despite‘no smoking’ signs. The waiters seldom stop them,” he said.
Big market
The WHO also shares Xiao’s frustration at China’s weak attempts to ban smoking in public places.
China signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and ratified it on January 9, 2006. according to the Framework Convention, as a party member, China should totally ban smoking in all the public places and public transportation tools within five years.
However, five years later, in January 2011, the WHO issued a report entitled Tobacco Control and the Future of China in Beijing to evaluate China’s tobacco control results. Based on a hundred-point evaluation system, China scored 37.3 points, sitting near the bottom of the more than 100 party members of the Convention.
This poor showing is reflective of a highly monopolized tobacco industry raking in profits. according to a report issued by the Industrial Bank (headquartered in Fujian) in March this year, the China national Tobacco Corp.’s net profit in 2010 was 117.7 billion yuan($18.68 billion), making Wal-Mart’s $15.7 billion profit seem a pittance in comparison.
With 350 million smokers in 2011, China is the world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer.
The WHO report also said that about 1.2 million smokers die from the habit in China every year, outnumbering the total numbers of those who die from HIV/aIDS, tuberculosis, traffic accidents and suicides.
Packaging flaw
“given the large tobacco consumption and smoking population, it will be a long time before China can achieve its tobacco control goal,” Xu guihua, Executive Deputy Director of Chinese association of Tobacco Control, told ChinAfrica.
according to Xu, China still lacks sufficient efforts to publicize the harm of tobacco to people’s health. For example, there are no effective warning signs on the cigarette cases in China.
“Cigarette packs are the best place to get people to give up smoking. But in China, they play the role of attracting more smokers,” said Xu. Because of the attractive packaging, cigarettes are often used as high-end gifts in China during holidays and festivals.
More importantly, China does not have national regulations and laws to ban smoking in public places. There are 17 countries worldwide that have national laws to ban smoking and more than 150 others have laws to ban smoking in selected public places. In China, even the advertising Law and the national Provisional Regulations on Tobacco advertising Management do not forbid tobacco advertising.
“Without a [tobacco] law, it is very difficult for China to control tobacco in public places,” said Xu.
Society the loser
China sits with a massive conundrum. On the one hand, tobacco should be banned, while on the other hand, the tobacco industry is a major contributor to China’s tax revenue. at a national tobacco work conference held on January 11,Jiang Chengkang, Chief administrator of State Tobacco Monopoly administration, said that the tobacco industry contributed a total of 752.96 billion yuan ($119.52 billion) of tax and profits in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent.
But Xu doesn’t think the tobacco industry can benefit society. On the contrary, it can only bring losses. according to the Fourth national Public Health Service Survey and the Health Statistic Yearbook in 2008, the direct economic losses from medical treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases caused by adults above 35 years old smoking that year reached 39.08 billion yuan ($6.2 billion); the indirect economic losses were higher, reach-ing 184.64 billion yuan ($29.3 billion).
“While earning profits for themselves, the tobacco enterprises are bringing greater losses to all aspects of our society,” said Xu.
Conflict of interests
according to Xu, China has nearly 900 million people threatened by tobacco and joint effort by various government departments is needed to protect them. However, experts say that the government’s efforts in this regard is ineffective.
after signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, China established a mechanism headed by the national Development and Reform Commission (nDRC) to enforce the Convention. Five years later, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) replaced nDRC to lead the mechanism that is expected to control tobacco in China.
“So far, they have hardly held any conferences, have no plans of controlling tobacco and have no legislation plan in this regard,” said Xu.
Ironically, as a competent administration department, MIIT is in charge of development of the tobacco industry; as leader of this mechanism, it should ban tobacco. “Then, what should it do with the tobacco industry?” asked Xu.
In addition, the government supervision department State Tobacco Monopoly administration and the tobacco operation enterprise China national Tobacco Corp. are actually one organization, operated by the same group of people.
according to Xu, the government department of tobacco is actu- ally speaking for the interests of tobacco enterprises. They are expected to restrain the growth of the tobacco industry, but they are actually helping it seek larger development space.
“This is the greatest difficulty in tobacco control. Without reforming such a system, it’s impossible for China to make any achievements in tobacco control,” said Xu.
The good news is the Chinese government has listed the goal of banning smoke in public places into its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).“This is a very important move and we applaud it,” said Xu. “But we also hope the government could take concrete measures to control tobacco.”
Wang was first attracted by people smoking in films and felt it was the fashionable thing to do along with his pals. Today he smokes two packs a day, but finds that there are fewer places where he can now light up as smoking bans in hotels, restaurants and offices become more prevalent.
“On many occasions, when I smoke in public places, I can feel many people glaring at me and I had to stub out my cigarette,” Wang told ChinAfrica, adding that the best place for him to smoke is in the kitchen at home where the stove’s extractor fan can suck up the smoke.
This big squeeze on smokers is a worldwide campaign committed to preventing non-smokers from inhaling second-hand smoke and improving the world’s health bill.
a year ago, on May 1, 2011, China’s Ministry of Health announced the banning of smoking at in-door public places according to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a binding international treaty issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Though Wang thinks the announcement helped to reduce the space for smokers, many others believe that the ban has been a damp squib due to poor implementation.
“I don’t see any effects coming out of the ban in the past year. a colleague still smokes in my office and I found no effective ways to stop him,” said Xiao Wei, editor of a Beijing-based magazine.
Xiao puts on a personal protest by wearing a protective facemask while at work.
It’s not only at work where Xiao gets smoke up his nose.
“I often go to restaurants and see many people smoking despite‘no smoking’ signs. The waiters seldom stop them,” he said.
Big market
The WHO also shares Xiao’s frustration at China’s weak attempts to ban smoking in public places.
China signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and ratified it on January 9, 2006. according to the Framework Convention, as a party member, China should totally ban smoking in all the public places and public transportation tools within five years.
However, five years later, in January 2011, the WHO issued a report entitled Tobacco Control and the Future of China in Beijing to evaluate China’s tobacco control results. Based on a hundred-point evaluation system, China scored 37.3 points, sitting near the bottom of the more than 100 party members of the Convention.
This poor showing is reflective of a highly monopolized tobacco industry raking in profits. according to a report issued by the Industrial Bank (headquartered in Fujian) in March this year, the China national Tobacco Corp.’s net profit in 2010 was 117.7 billion yuan($18.68 billion), making Wal-Mart’s $15.7 billion profit seem a pittance in comparison.
With 350 million smokers in 2011, China is the world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer.
The WHO report also said that about 1.2 million smokers die from the habit in China every year, outnumbering the total numbers of those who die from HIV/aIDS, tuberculosis, traffic accidents and suicides.
Packaging flaw
“given the large tobacco consumption and smoking population, it will be a long time before China can achieve its tobacco control goal,” Xu guihua, Executive Deputy Director of Chinese association of Tobacco Control, told ChinAfrica.
according to Xu, China still lacks sufficient efforts to publicize the harm of tobacco to people’s health. For example, there are no effective warning signs on the cigarette cases in China.
“Cigarette packs are the best place to get people to give up smoking. But in China, they play the role of attracting more smokers,” said Xu. Because of the attractive packaging, cigarettes are often used as high-end gifts in China during holidays and festivals.
More importantly, China does not have national regulations and laws to ban smoking in public places. There are 17 countries worldwide that have national laws to ban smoking and more than 150 others have laws to ban smoking in selected public places. In China, even the advertising Law and the national Provisional Regulations on Tobacco advertising Management do not forbid tobacco advertising.
“Without a [tobacco] law, it is very difficult for China to control tobacco in public places,” said Xu.
Society the loser
China sits with a massive conundrum. On the one hand, tobacco should be banned, while on the other hand, the tobacco industry is a major contributor to China’s tax revenue. at a national tobacco work conference held on January 11,Jiang Chengkang, Chief administrator of State Tobacco Monopoly administration, said that the tobacco industry contributed a total of 752.96 billion yuan ($119.52 billion) of tax and profits in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent.
But Xu doesn’t think the tobacco industry can benefit society. On the contrary, it can only bring losses. according to the Fourth national Public Health Service Survey and the Health Statistic Yearbook in 2008, the direct economic losses from medical treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases caused by adults above 35 years old smoking that year reached 39.08 billion yuan ($6.2 billion); the indirect economic losses were higher, reach-ing 184.64 billion yuan ($29.3 billion).
“While earning profits for themselves, the tobacco enterprises are bringing greater losses to all aspects of our society,” said Xu.
Conflict of interests
according to Xu, China has nearly 900 million people threatened by tobacco and joint effort by various government departments is needed to protect them. However, experts say that the government’s efforts in this regard is ineffective.
after signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, China established a mechanism headed by the national Development and Reform Commission (nDRC) to enforce the Convention. Five years later, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) replaced nDRC to lead the mechanism that is expected to control tobacco in China.
“So far, they have hardly held any conferences, have no plans of controlling tobacco and have no legislation plan in this regard,” said Xu.
Ironically, as a competent administration department, MIIT is in charge of development of the tobacco industry; as leader of this mechanism, it should ban tobacco. “Then, what should it do with the tobacco industry?” asked Xu.
In addition, the government supervision department State Tobacco Monopoly administration and the tobacco operation enterprise China national Tobacco Corp. are actually one organization, operated by the same group of people.
according to Xu, the government department of tobacco is actu- ally speaking for the interests of tobacco enterprises. They are expected to restrain the growth of the tobacco industry, but they are actually helping it seek larger development space.
“This is the greatest difficulty in tobacco control. Without reforming such a system, it’s impossible for China to make any achievements in tobacco control,” said Xu.
The good news is the Chinese government has listed the goal of banning smoke in public places into its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).“This is a very important move and we applaud it,” said Xu. “But we also hope the government could take concrete measures to control tobacco.”