All advertising of tobacco, including promotions and
sponsorship, will be banned across China by January 2011, according
to a leading non-governmental organization.
Xu Guihua, deputy leader and secretary-general of Chinese
Association on Tobacco Control announced the deadline in a public
report on China's implementation of Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Guangzhou,
capital of Guangdong Province.
However, an official with the Advertising Supervision Department
of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said on
Tuesday that he could not comment on the time schedule.
The deadline was confirmed by Jiang Yuan, deputy head of the
State Tobacco Control Office affiliated to the Ministry of Health,
who said the timing should coincide with China's commitment as a
signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The WHO convention requires signatories to ban tobacco
advertising and related promotions and sponsorships within five
years of its ratification by signatory states.
China joined the international fight against tobacco consumption
when it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the
World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2003. It ratified the
convention in October 2005 and the convention came into effect on
January 9. 2006, although implementation of the convention is not
obligatory.
Xu blamed the lack of a national law prohibiting smoking in all
public places for China's laggardness behind other countries in
tobacco control.
China is the world's largest tobacco producing and consuming
country, accounting for more than a third of the global total on
both counts. It has more than 350 million smokers and almost one
million die from smoking-related diseases each year, according to
the Ministry of Health.
About 540 million Chinese suffer the effects of secondhand smoke
and more than 100,000 die annually from diseases caused by passive
smoking, said the ministry's 2007 Report on China's Smoking
Control.
At present, smoking is banned in cinemas, libraries, song and
dance halls, and conference rooms in the country. Only 28 cities on
the Chinese mainland are free of advertising on tobacco.
As the host of the 2008 summer Olympic Games, Beijing has been
waging a campaign for a smoke-free Games.
In April, municipal government departments of Beijing, including
the bureaus of health and commerce, issued a circular asking all
catering businesses to implement tobacco controls.
By June next year, smoking bans should be enforced in all hotels
that provide services for athletes and other workers of the Olympic
Games, all competition venues and restaurants in the Olympic
Village.
Large and medium-sized restaurants in the city should also make
at least 75 percent of their floor space non-smoking.
(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2007)