According to Beijing's Vice-Mayor Liu Jingmin, the city is
mulling over a smoking ban on all Olympic Games venues, in a response to a
political advisor's concern about the effects of widespread smoking
behavior in public places.
"The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG)
is holding talks with the Health Ministry to create special smoking
areas in the game venues, thus ensuring most places are free of any
tobacco smoke," Liu said.
Zi Huajun, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), drafted a
proposal illustrating that uncontrolled smoking is common among
some Beijing residents.
"Smoking is often seen in places bearing clear non-smoking
signs, " said Zi, who went on to point the finger at some CPPCC
members and deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC), who
ignored signs warning against smoking in public places.
High-end restaurants and hotels are meant to restrict smoking,
but few have yet cordoned off smoking areas, she said.
Liu Jingmin noted that the Olympic Games, the biggest sports
event China has ever hosted, will not only reflect the nation's
infrastructure and facilities, but serve as an example of its
people's ethics and manners.
This debate has been part of Olympic preparations before with
organizing tobacco-free Games topping China's agenda for preparing
a green Olympiad.
Last May, the Ministry of Health pledged to impose a smoking ban
by the end of 2007 on all hospitals that would be used specifically
to serve the Games. The ministry added that this ban would also
extend to public transport and buildings, particularly those with
services catering to children.
The first non-smoking Olympiad, following the project's
initiation in 1988, was held in Barcelona in 1992.
Such a feat will prove rather tougher for Beijing since China is
thought to have 350 million smokers, translating as 26 percent of
the country's population and a third of the world's total number of
nicotine addicts.
China suffers from around 1 million deaths from smoking-related
diseases each year, with this figure set to triple by 2050.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2007)