China to push ban

Ahhh, a great decision by China to ban smoking in public places. i do remember how shocked i was that everywhere we went in the hotel in Beijing there was cigarette smoke. that included the lobby, the restaurant, non-smoking rooms and even the elevators. Even with non-smoking signs posted they still did so in our hotel. Some of the stats below are a bit staggering to even wrap your brain around, 300 million smokers in China, wow!

BEIJING – Chinese health authorities are renewing a push to ban smoking in indoor public places, adding more venues like hotels and restaurants as of May 1, though still excluding many workplaces.

The guidelines given on the Health Ministry's website are the latest effort to curb tobacco use in the country with the world's largest number of smokers and where experts say huge revenues from the state-owned tobacco monopoly hinders anti-smoking measures.

Smoking, which is linked to the deaths of at least 1 million people in China every year, is one of the greatest health threats the country faces, government statistics show. Nearly 30 percent of adults in China smoke, about 300 million people — a number roughly equal to the entire U.S. population.

The guidelines released this week are part of the Health Ministry's regulations on health management in public places — a set of rules that also covers areas including ventilation, use of disinfectants, air quality and pest control.

The older regulations listed venues such as movie theaters, concert halls, libraries and shopping malls in which smoking was prohibited. The new list adds hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, hair and beauty salons and other places.

The new regulations call for no-smoking signs to be put up in public places, and require owners or managers of venues considered public places to allocate staff to persuade smokers to give up the habit.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_on_he_me/as_china_smoking