Shocked by the fact that nearly half of the country's 1.3
billion population are suffering from passive smoking, a Chinese
lawmaker has called for a national legislation to ban smoking at
all public places.
"According to my estimation based on a survey, nearly 600
million Chinese suffer from passive smoking, which occurs in 71
percent of Chinese households, 32.5 percent of public places and 25
percent of working places," said Chen Guiyun, a deputy to the 10th
National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, from the
southwestern municipality of Chongqing.
China already has a whopping smoking population of 350 million
aged above 15, or one of every three smokers in the world.
"It is imperative to create a no-smoking social environment and
enhance the self-protection awareness of non-smokers," said
Chen.
According to the legislator, women and children in the country
suffer most from secondhand smoking, as the survey showed the
passive smoking ratio among the females was 57 percent, and even as
high as 70 percent among professional women aged between 20 and
49.
"I have tabled a motion to the upcoming NPC session, suggesting
the State Council (the Chinese cabinet) formulate regulations on
smoking ban in public places as early as possible," said Chen, who
is here for the annual full session of the NPC, slated to open here
on Sunday.
When the conditions are ripe, Chen said, the NPC should even
enact a law on such a ban.
Many Chinese cities, government departments and organizations
have adopted local-level or internal regulations and rules banning
smoking in public places. However, so far it seems that such a ban
is only strictly observed by airline companies, which have
forbidden smoking on any domestic or international flights. Smoking
remains rampant and unchecked in other public places such as
restaurants, cinemas, offices and railway stations despite
conspicuous "no smoking" signs.
According to the standards of the World Health Organization,
passive smokers are those non-smoking people who are exposed to
smog exhaled by the smokers for more than 15 minutes more than one
day of a week.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2006)