Fri, Dec 16, 2016 page5

• Anti-smoking volunteers enforce Beijing ban

  • AP, BEIJING
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  A group of anti-smoking volunteers in blue vests marched through an office building on a recent morning in Beijing, trailed by two police officers and the building’s management. As people peered out of the doorways, the volunteers turned several corners and stopped in front of a stairwell door. One of them pushed it open.

  There stood an office worker, pressing a cellphone to one ear and holding a lit cigarette in his other hand. Someone had turned him in.

  A stern lecture followed from the group’s leader, a stocky, 32-year-old fine arts teacher named Liu Li.

  

  A man smokes outside an office building in Beijing on Dec. 2.

  Photo: AP
  Warning:Smoking can damage your health

  “Today, we won’t punish you, but we will criticize and educate you,” Liu said in a carrying voice, as the worker bowed and apologized repeatedly. “Don’t throw cigarette butts around. You must not act like this next time.”

  As China considers a nationwide ban on smoking in public places, the fight is well under way in Beijing, which banned smoking in restaurants and other indoor areas 18 months ago.

  Cigarettes are a cultural symbol in China, where national leaders dating back to Mao Zedong (毛澤東) were well-known smokers, and where cigarettes are still handed out commonly at weddings, banquets and holiday celebrations. The tobacco industry employs more than 300,000 people and remains a key source of revenue in the national budget.

  The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration generated more than US$150 billion in tax revenues just last year alone.

  However, tobacco extracts a huge cost as well. About 1 million deaths a year in China can be attributed to cigarettes, a figure that could triple by 2050 without greater action to curb the habit. China has more than 300 million smokers and nearly half of China’s adult males smoke regularly, according to the World Bank.

  For all of the attention given to China’s notorious air pollution, it is smoking that is often far more damaging and far easier to correct, said Bernhard Schwartlander, who has worked for several years in China as the WHO’s local representative.

  “When the air is bad outside, everybody gets upset and talks about it,” Schwartlander said.

  However, “just a few smokers in a room in an average restaurant can cause air pollution inside that is worse than the very worst days we see in Beijing,” he said.

  At the behest of the WHO and other advocates, China has launched a national anti-smoking campaign backed by the force of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), considered the country’s strongest ruler in decades.

  Shortly after becoming head of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, Xi told party officials not to smoke in public and his sweeping anti-corruption probe has targeted the acceptance of expensive gifts such as fancy cigarettes. Xi, who was once photographed in the 1980s holding a cigarette at his desk as a party cadre, has reportedly quit smoking himself.

  Anti-smoking advocates hope they can eventually build off the progress they have made in individual cities such as Beijing. Anyone caught smoking inside a restaurant, office building, public bus or train can be ticketed and fined up to 200 yuan (US$28.84). No-smoking signs have popped all over the sprawling city of 20 million people.

  A network of volunteers has been trained by the government-funded Beijing Tobacco Control Association to monitor complaints and catch smokers.

  In a meeting with reporters, association director Zhang Jianshu (張建樞) showed off an interactive map of Beijing on a flat-screen TV in his office that was dotted with small blue sirens marking the spot of a complaint submitted by a tipster.

  Volunteers must pledge never to have smoked before, said Liu Li, the volunteer who led the pursuit of smokers in stairwells. Anyone caught smoking is expelled from the group.

  Just 2,700 people have been fined since the law went into effect, an average of fewer than five per day, according to state media.

  However, Beijing residents almost uniformly agree the campaign has made an impact.

  “A couple of years ago, you couldn’t enter any bar or any restaurant without being exposed to smoke,” Schwartlander said. “Today, it’s almost the absolute exception.”
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