As one of the many efforts to make China's major cities more comfortable to use Westerners, China has pushed to add more non-smoking areas into public spaces. An article this April on ShanghaiDaily.com (I've linked to the website, but the article is only available to subscribers) talks about Shanghai's plan to make Nanjing Lu, which is basically a more extreme version of Wanfujing, smoke-free or at least set up specified smoking areas to encourage smoking away from large public crowds.
A recent article in the China Daily shows that these efforts may not be too successful. According to the article, the rate of teenage smokers is growing rapidly with over 11% of the 13-18 age group claiming to already be addicted. It is also far more likely for young girls to be hooked on the habit than their mothers.
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention deputy director, Yang Gonghuan, blames the increase of users on advertising and television. Although I do not disagree with Mr. Yang, I think the fact that, according to the Worldwatch Institute, China produces 32% of the world's cigarettes (99% of which remain in China unlike the US which exports 24% of its products) plays a major role as well. The government has a vested interest in keeping visitors happy, but it would lose a lot of revenue if China's cigarette users drops.
China has laws which prohibit the sale of tobacco products to children under 18, but 90% of the smoking teens surveyed claim to never have encountered problems purchasing tobacco products. Creating such a law sounds great, but if it is not enforced there's really no point to it.
Beijing aims to have a smoke-free Olympic Games. Will they succeed?
A recent article in the China Daily shows that these efforts may not be too successful. According to the article, the rate of teenage smokers is growing rapidly with over 11% of the 13-18 age group claiming to already be addicted. It is also far more likely for young girls to be hooked on the habit than their mothers.
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention deputy director, Yang Gonghuan, blames the increase of users on advertising and television. Although I do not disagree with Mr. Yang, I think the fact that, according to the Worldwatch Institute, China produces 32% of the world's cigarettes (99% of which remain in China unlike the US which exports 24% of its products) plays a major role as well. The government has a vested interest in keeping visitors happy, but it would lose a lot of revenue if China's cigarette users drops.
China has laws which prohibit the sale of tobacco products to children under 18, but 90% of the smoking teens surveyed claim to never have encountered problems purchasing tobacco products. Creating such a law sounds great, but if it is not enforced there's really no point to it.
Beijing aims to have a smoke-free Olympic Games. Will they succeed?
No comments:
Post a Comment