From danwei.org
Three-hundred and fifty thousand people smoke cigarettes in China. If those smokers enter Beijing, they'll have to obstain, according to a new smoking ban that prohibits lighting up in restaurants, offices, bathrooms, hotels, hostels, resorts, and other public places. The new restrictions arrive less than 200 days before the Olympic Games in support of "Smoke-free Olympics."
A previous ban on smoking in Bejing restaurants was met with empty tables and declining business, according to an article in China Daily.
"We figure that, if we're going to die, at least we're going to die honorably," said Guo Xiaodong, the deputy director of Meizhou Dongpo, a restaurant chain in China. "We are happy to be the first Chinese restaurant in Beijing to ban smoking, but we may not be able to afford the drop in customers," he added. "At least we'll be remembered for championing the cause" (http://chinadaily.com/olympics/2008-01/18/content_6404823.htm).
With 100,000 people dying each year from second-hand smoke, and the largest smoking-related deaths in the world, China could save hundreds of lives with this ban, if it is enforced.
Three-hundred and fifty thousand people smoke cigarettes in China. If those smokers enter Beijing, they'll have to obstain, according to a new smoking ban that prohibits lighting up in restaurants, offices, bathrooms, hotels, hostels, resorts, and other public places. The new restrictions arrive less than 200 days before the Olympic Games in support of "Smoke-free Olympics."
A previous ban on smoking in Bejing restaurants was met with empty tables and declining business, according to an article in China Daily.
"We figure that, if we're going to die, at least we're going to die honorably," said Guo Xiaodong, the deputy director of Meizhou Dongpo, a restaurant chain in China. "We are happy to be the first Chinese restaurant in Beijing to ban smoking, but we may not be able to afford the drop in customers," he added. "At least we'll be remembered for championing the cause" (http://chinadaily.com/olympics/2008-01/18/content_6404823.htm).
With 100,000 people dying each year from second-hand smoke, and the largest smoking-related deaths in the world, China could save hundreds of lives with this ban, if it is enforced.
According to a BBC News report, smoking could eventually kill a third of all young Chinese men (few women smoke in China) if they don't quit (http://news.bbc.co.uj/2/hi/health/216998.stm).
In the survey on tobacco use in China, featured in the BBC report, two-thirds of Chinese people think smoking does little or no harm, 60% think it does not cause lung cancer, and 96% don't know that it causes heart disease. It appears that smoking control education is needed in addition to the smoking ban.
