{"id":120982,"date":"2015-06-01T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=120982"},"modified":"2015-06-01T09:45:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T09:45:54","slug":"beijing-public-smoking-ban-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=120982","title":{"rendered":"Beijing public smoking ban begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public smoking in China’s capital, Beijing, is now banned after the introduction of a new law.<\/p>\n

China has over 300 million smokers and over a million Chinese people die from smoking-related illnesses every year.<\/p>\n

Smoking bans already existed in China, but have largely failed to crack down on the habit.<\/p>\n

These tougher regulations ban lighting up in restaurants, offices and on public transport in Beijing. Thousands of inspectors will enforce the rules.<\/p>\n

These tougher regulations ban lighting up in restaurants, offices and on public transport in Beijing. Thousands of inspectors will enforce the rules.<\/p>\n

\"A
A pack of cigarettes in China can cost less than 5 yuan (\u00a30.50; $0.70)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
‘Name and shame’<\/strong><\/figure>\n

Ministry of Health guidelines published in 2011 banned smoking in all public spaces nationwide such as hotels and restaurants.<\/p>\n

The rules were vague, however, and often flouted by Chinese smokers who are accustomed to lighting up at will.<\/p>\n

The new rules were agreed by lawmakers in November 2014 but only came into effect on 1 June.<\/p>\n

Under the legislation lawbreakers in Beijing will be fined 200 yuan (\u00a321; $32) and businesses that turn a blind eye could be fined up to 10,000 yuan.<\/p>\n

\"A
China has over 300 million smokers and a cigarette is seen as central to daily life for many people<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Couple
In Shanghai, a couple are seen smoking while eating at a restaurant<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Repeat offenders will be named and shamed on a government website, according to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

The new law also cracks down on tobacco advertising across the city.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization has welcomed the new tougher regulations.<\/p>\n

“When implemented, this new law will permanently bring clean air to all of Beijing’s indoor public places – in doing so, protecting Beijing’s more than 20 million residents from the deadly effects of exposure to toxic second-hand smoke,” said its representative in China, Dr Bernhard Schwartlander.<\/p>\n

However, others believe that the sheer popularity of the habit will make the regulations difficult to enforce.<\/p>\n

Yang Gonghuan, former vice-director of China’s centre for disease control told the AFP news agency: “It is unrealistic to absolutely abolish ‘indoor smoking’ since too many people smoke.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public smoking in China’s capital, Beijing, is now banned after the introduction of a new law. China has over 300 million smokers and over a million Chinese people die from smoking-related illnesses every year. Smoking bans already existed in China, but have largely failed to crack down on the habit. These tougher regulations ban lighting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":120986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,14],"class_list":["post-120982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}