Call to make all public places 100% smoke-free with laws to support the ban

The China City Adult Tobacco Survey highlights the need for smoke-free environments to protect the public from secondhand smoke. These need to be supported by strong laws that are enforced to make sure that they work.

“There is no safe level of secondhand smoke, and the only way to protect against its harms is to make all indoor places 100% smoke-free,” said Dr Bernhard Schwartländer, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in China.

The survey, published on 18 August, asked people in 14 cities across China a range of questions about tobacco use and tobacco control policies. The survey results showed very strong public support for smoke-free places, but also highlighted that this was only effective when there were laws in place to support the ban, for example, rates of exposure to secondhand smoke were lower in cities with smoke-free regulations when compared to those without regulations.

The survey results point to a range of areas where more progress is needed. These include, making the public aware of where smoking bans are in place, increasingly knowledge of the harms of smoking and secondhand smoke, and making tobacco advertising less visible.

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Find out more about secondhand smoke (passive smoking) in the ELF factsheet on smoking and the lungs.