In effort to create a smoke-free Olympics, Beijing on Thursday expanded its non-smoking policy in more public places to cover a range of areas from hotels to parks.
Following a regulation implemented in 1996, the measures have been expanded to include fitness centers, cultural relic sites, offices, meeting rooms, dining halls, toilets, and aisles and lifts in buildings belonging to government or private institutions.
In addition, restaurants, Internet cafes, parks, waiting halls in airports, railway stations and coach stations are also required to provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas.
Hotels were told to offer smoke-free rooms or floors, but the regulations didn't specify the proportion.
People caught smoking in forbidden areas will be fined 10 yuan (1.4 U.S. dollars), while enterprises and institutions that violate the rule face fines ranging between 1,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan.
Local authorities will dispatch about 100,000 inspectors to check the enforcement of the rule.
Before the new regulation, the capital had previously banned smoking in hospitals, kindergartens, schools, museums, sports venues and other places.
From Oct. 1 last year, it also banned smoking in the city's 66,000 taxis. It imposed a fine of between 100 yuan and 200 yuan on drivers if they were caught smoking in cabs.
China has pledged a non-smoking and green Olympics. The upcoming Games will be the first non-smoking Olympics since the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which China was a signatory, went into effect in 2005.
Beijing health officials said the smoking ban in public places were designed not just for the Olympics, but as a long-term campaign to promote health. Local authorities were also considering upgrading the existing regulations to a law in future.
"Smoking areas in public places will eventually be abolished in the city," said Zhang Peili of the Beijing Municipal Legislative Affairs Office.
About 350 million people in China smoke, Ministry of Health statistics show. That is about 26 percent of the country's population and a third of the world's smokers. About 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases in the country annually.
As high as 90 percent of the Chinese public applauded Beijing's smoking ban in public places, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Daily and sina.com.cn.
The survey, covering 5,482 netizens, also revealed that 52 percent of smokers agreed with the ban, while 37 percent opposed.
"Of course, smoking shouldn't be allowed in public places. We non-smokers need more fresh air," said a local resident surnamed Wang.
Source: Xinhua
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