More Supervision Needed for the Implementation of Smoking Ban

China is home to more than 300 million smokers. Each year one million people die of smoking-related diseases.

The Chinese government has implemented some regulations to ban smoking in public places but the results have not proven these measures to be effective.

This time, the authorities are planning a complete smoking ban in nurseries and schools.

Chen Zhe has more.
Shortly after a joint notice issued by the Education Ministry and Health Ministry in mid July to ban smoking in schools, a symposium on tobacco control in teenagers was held earlier this week. More than 180 experts from departments of education and health joined the forum to discuss how to put the joint notice into action.

Though considering the notice a positive move, Xu Guihua, Vice President of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, questions its implementation.

"We don't know whether the notice will be handed to individual schools because the two ministries will only pass it to provincial health and education departments. Moreover, the ministries didn't plan a budget for the notice and it seemed that they were not going to supervise the implementation of the notice. Thus it's the schools' choice to implement it or not."

In the announcement, the two ministries prohibit anyone, including students and visitors, from smoking at elementary or secondary schools, nurseries and kindergartens, as well as at vocational schools.

Furthermore, no tobacco products may be sold on campus. The notice also forbids tobacco advertising at schools. It asks for no-smoking signs to be posted in conspicuous locations at schools.

High school teacher Chen Qun thinks the smoking ban won't achieve much in the short term.

"The surrounding environment allows smoking on campus and giving up the habit is hard. Most schools don't set up rules, especially punishment guidelines on smoking. People's awareness of the danger brought by smoking is still poor. "

China has about fifteen million teenage smokers, most of them high school and college students. More then forty million teenagers have tried smoking and 65 million people aged thirteen to eighteen have been exposed to second-hand smoke.

Since 2000, the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control has launched promotions to control tobacco on campus and encouraged tobacco bans on campuses. Some schools in major cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen have answered their calls and seen a decline in the number of teen smokers.

But more schools choose to ignore them.

Xu Guihua from the Tobacco Control Association says good results can only be achieved by collaboration of different departments and different groups of people.

"Research shows that teenagers are most influenced by their idols. Smoking scenes in popular movies have created a large number of followers. Secondly, behaviors of teachers and peers also influence teenagers. Moreover, it's very easy to buy tobacco even around campus. "

She says the government should not only promote smoking ban by words, but also allocate funds for the supervision of its implementation and publicize detailed rules of the ban.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.