Beijing adopts smoking ban for public places

China’s capital city has adopted a smoking ban for all indoor public places and offices.

The new law, which was passed last week (28 November, 2014), comes into force in June 2015 and also bans tobacco advertising outdoors, on public transport and on nearly every form of media, including magazines, radio, TV, films, newspapers and books.

With approximately 300 million smokers, China is home to the largest number of smokers in the world, and seven in 10 nonsmokers are routinely exposed to secondhand smoke.  Each year in China, about 1.3 million smokers die from tobacco-related disease, and another 100,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke.

The new law will reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in this city of 21 million and could pave the way for urgently-needed nationwide action to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in China.

The World Health Organization (WHO) applauded the move, saying it paved the way for strict anti-smoking legislation at the national level.

For a comprehensive overview of the health hazards of smoking, visit the ERS SmokeHaz website provides review of the scientific evidence linked to active and passive smoking.

Learn more about tobacco legislation and smoke-free environments in Europe.