China fails pledge on indoor smoking ban.

China's pledge to ban smoking indoors looks set to go up in smoke as the Jan 9 deadline
set five years ago approaches. Despite the promise on entering the World Health
Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2006, The Beijing Times
reported in January 2011, that China has witnessed no decline in smoking, but has 200
million more people suffering from the effects of second hand smoke over the past
three years.

A report of the Tobacco Control and China's Future, which will be issued in January 2011,
said three million deaths in China will be caused by smoking in 2030, accounting
for 25 percent of the total, compared with 2 to 3 percent for AIDS. The social welfare
effect of the tobacco industry has also declined sharply from 150 million yuan ($23 million)
in 1998 to minus 60 billion yuan in 2010, considering the high costs, including medical
and labor, which far outnumbered its contribution of tax and employment, the report said.
The situation will be even worse in the next 20 years," said Yang Gonghuan, deputy
director of the National Center of Disease Control of China.

Lax enforcement of tobacco control

Yang said it is hard for the government to take a knife to the tobacco industry because
it is an important tax payer, despite 60 experts' research finding the industry has posed
the greatest threat to people's health and become the main factor for the fast rise of
chronic diseases in China. Anti-smoking activists said a law is crucial to enforcing the
commitment to the tobacco control convention. However, China has yet to make one,
and its current Advertising Law doesn't even ban tobacco companies from advertising.

The loose enforcement of China's commitment was highlighted when tobacco firms, which
include Hongta Group, Guangdong Shuangxi and Shanghai Tobacco were nominated among
the top 10 Chinese social responsible enterprises in November 2010. The move triggered
heated debates online and was seen as an obvious violation to the WHO tobacco control
convention which required participating countries to ban tobacco advertisements,
promotion and sponsorship on the fifth year of committing to the convention. Despite
the freedom of advertising, tobacco firms have also tapped into the public welfare area.

A total of 52 tobacco companies donated to or sponsored 79 public welfare activities
in 40 cities and counties from September to December 2009, according to the information
by Chinese Association on Tobacco Control. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration
of China established two funds In November 2010. China Women's Development Foundation
and donated 10 million yuan, which aimed to support two welfare projects.

The convention also requires warning information to cover at least 50 percent of a cigarette
pack's total visible area, but the only warning one can find on the fine-looking and tempting.
Cigarette packs in China are a line of small characters reading "smoking is bad to your health."
Zhi Xiuyi, a professor and a member of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, said
expensive cigarettes are generally used in gift-giving and public fund consumption.
"If we print disgusting pictures like rotten feet and lung on cigarette packs, they would lose
their market."

Low cigarette prices

A man suffering from lung cancer after smoking for more than 50 years said the
cigarette, he usually smokes one pack everyday, and costs less than 10 yuan a pack.
The low price is definitely a huge temptation for Chinese smokers compared with that
a pack of cigarette costs about 60 yuan to 70 yuan in Hong Kong and New York.

Yang Gonghuan said China imposed a 5 percent tax on the tobacco wholesale process and
raised its tobacco tax in 2009, which didn't cause a decline in the country's tobacco
consumption, but made the sales of some kinds of tobacco to keep a growing trend.
The tobacco tax was seemingly raised, but the sum of cigarettes that have price hikes is
quite limited," Yang said, adding only by raising tobacco's retail prices can control tobacco
consumption in the country.

Beijing's move

Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health said on Dec 24, 2010 that tobacco control is in
its 12th year plan and the city's public indoor spaces, working place and transportation
vehicles will be totally smoke-free by 2015, which means the goal is
postponed by five years from the original 2010. However, when a law will be issued is still
unknown, because "it involves the communication and coordination of many
government departments.

According to official data released in 2009, 70 percent of Beijing's public spaces have
banned smoking, 1,020 restaurants, 218 hospitals and 66,000 taxis after a new regulation
was enforced in 2008. However, the rule seems to have become loose recently, with
smoking and non-smoking areas not being separated in some restaurants and smoking
still found in smoke-free areas.
Source: Zhang Jiawei, china daily.com.cn, January 4, 2011

Beijing airport bans all smoking indoors.

Beijing Capital International Airport has become China's first smoke-free international
air hub. Starting in May 2011, the airport shut down up to 36 smoking rooms in all three
terminals. The airport official said the latest measures are introduced to create a healthy
traveling environment for passengers. The suspended smoking rooms will not open to
the public again, and their future role remains undecided, airport officials said.
People's Daily Online June 01, 2011

The Beijing Capital International Airport began implementing a complete ban of smoking,
starting in May 2011, closing 36 smoking rooms at its three terminals and intensifying
inspections of the buildings and public areas. However, at the request of Chinese
passengers, ten of the smoking rooms were re-opened.

Departure
Passengers only area:
Nine smoking rooms are provided in the terminal buildings.
International Departure Hall: within Boarding Gate1 and close to Boarding Gate 2-4, 7 and 14;
Domestic Departure Hall: within Boarding Gate 25 and close to Boarding Gate 24, 28, 36 and 41-49

Arrival
Passenger-only area:
All closed.
Public area:
Smoking not allowed near entrance outside main terminal building.
Source: www.stage9.co.uk 15 January 2012

　Smoker caused a delay China's flight for two hours in Beijing airport.

A passenger smoked in a China Eastern Airlines plane toilet before the aircraft took off
from Beijing to Saipan and was delayed for more than two hours because it took an hour
to wait for police to arrest the offender away and another hour to go through a safety-check.
Source: Shanghai Daily, December 18, 2012

中国：室内禁煙公約実施は絶望的

2006年1月にタバコ枠組み規制条約に調印し、5年後の完全実施が期待された「喫煙大国」中国
であるが、上海などの都市での喫煙規制などの動きがあるものの、国家レベルでの室内全面
禁煙は実現のめどさえ立っていないし、喫煙率の低下も達成できていない。問題なのは受動
喫煙による副流煙の被害者はこの3年間で2億人増加するという。

中国で喫煙抑制の強化が出来ない理由として次の4項目の事情が挙げられている。

1）国の指導グループに衛生部、外交部に加えて「タバコ産業は中国の支柱産業」とする工業
情報部と国家タバコ専売局の政治的圧力で、禁煙に向けた足並みが揃わないこと。2010年11月に
ウルグアイで開催されたFCTCにて「工業情報部と専売局」からなる中国代表は「全面禁煙」に
反対する意見を何度も提出していたという。
２）法律でタバコ広告を禁止していないこと。タバコ企業が公益活動で社会に貢献していると
人々に広報していること。こうした行為は反タバコ運動への盛り上がりを弱める効果がある。
３）世界的にタバコのパッケージに有害記述、警告写真が掲載されている中、中国では今でも
美しいイラストが描かれているなど喫煙することの有害性をアピールしていない。
４）タバコの販売価格が安く抑えられていること。2009年にタバコの値上げを行ったものの、
タバコ消費量に歯止めがかからず、やや増加しているという。ノルウェーでは1000円前後する
マルボロが中国では200円足らずで買えてしまうので喫煙抑制への効果は低い。

日本も大同小異でタバコ会社のコマーシャルに振り回され、「分煙」をただ一つの解決法と
思っている施政者が多い。そしてタバコの臭いの漂う「禁煙席」に座って何も疑問を抱かない
喫煙していない日本人がなんと多いことだろう。「無煙たばこ」も放置している政府関係者に
尊敬できる見識者は存在せず、ただ呆然と時の過ぎて行くのを見送っている。医学的見地から
強くアドバイスを行うべき立場の日本禁煙学会は内部亀裂を引き起こし、政府自治体政策への
監視、助言機能を失っている。タバコ規制では世界の孤児となった日本と中国ではどちらが
先に欧米並みの喫煙規制国になるのだろうか。国民はさておき、政府首脳の喫煙問題に対する
姿勢は中国に大きく後れを取っている。

全面閉鎖していた首都空港の喫煙室、半年で再び開放

北京首都国際空港では2011年6月から喫煙室をすべて閉鎖し全面禁煙を実施してきたが、トイレ
などで隠れて吸う搭乗客が後を絶たず、大きな問題となったため、12月から再び一部の喫煙室を
開放した。北京首都国際空港の第1〜3ターミナルには36カ所の喫煙室が設置されていたが、
2011年6月に空港内の全面的な禁煙実施に合わせて、「禁煙」の表示や看板を掲示し、館内放送を
実施すると共に、36カ所の喫煙室すべてを閉鎖した。

しかし、喫煙室の閉鎖後、禁煙を無視して喫煙する旅客が増加。吸殻をところかまわず捨てたり、
トイレで隠れて吸う旅客によって火災報知器が作動するケースが増 えたりした。喫煙者と空港
職員とのトラブルも発生、業務に支障をきたすまでになった。特に、乗り継ぎ客は禁煙時間が
長時間に及ぶため、職員との間で頻繁にもめごとが起き、空港の安全管理にまで影響を及ぼした
という。

こうした状況や喫煙者からの要望を反映し、同空港では12月1日から喫煙室の一部10数カ所を
再び開放した。空港関係者は「閉鎖するにせよ開放するにせよ、非常に難しい問題だ」と頭を
悩ませている。
（引用、2011年12月3日付新京報、日本語訳：Yahoo ニュース）

首都国際空港が全面禁煙、利用客は「非人道的だ」―北京市 中国当局による？削除済
医師が患者の前で喫煙！公共施設での禁煙、今の中国には無理？ =香港紙 中国当局による？削除済
公共スペースでの全面禁煙も効果なし、理由は政府とたばこ産業のつながり =米紙 中国当局による？削除済
中国人はなぜタバコを吸うのをやめないのか ＝米ハーバード大生が論文　中国当局による？削除済
中国版新幹線が突然減速、原因は乗客の隠れタバコ =中国 中国当局による？削除済
上海空港喫煙所の外でタバコを吸う中国人

Smoking Ban in China
Difficulty in introducing a carpet smoking ban in China. Smoking declines as tobacco taxes increase
Smoking Ban in a restaurant looks hazy. Smoking Ban in a restaurant appears to fail.
A new smoking ban in Beijing 2015

室内全面禁煙公約を守れない大国
執筆　医学博士 宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
The article was written in January 2011, and last revised in January 2013,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
Copyright (C) 2011 Junhaku Miyamoto, All rights reserved.