Will China make the great leap in tobacco control in 2015?

Abstract

As the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco, China is becoming more aggressive in tobacco control this year. In April, China's legislature adopted an amendment to the 21-year-old advertisement law to ban tobacco advertisements in mass media, public transport, and public spaces. From May 10, China's consumption tax on the wholesale price of cigarettes was raised from 5% to 11%—the first increase since 2009. On June 1, Beijing's smoke-free law—one of the toughest tobacco control regulations in China—will come into effect. All indoor public places in Beijing, and many outdoor public places, including kindergartens, schools, and hospitals, will legally be required to be 100% smoke-free. Unlike previous regulations, the new Beijing law has teeth, including stringent fines for individuals and businesses that flout the law. With the implementation of this latest piece of legislation, a nationwide smoking ban is on the way. These steps are vital to accelerate implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in China. However, the major barrier for China's tobacco control is not lack of tough regulations, but “interference by the tobacco industry”, as Gonghuan Yang and colleagues recently pointed out in The Lancet. China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is in charge of tobacco product sales and is also responsible for tobacco control, which has been widely acknowledged as a serious conflict of interest. Worryingly, low-tar cigarettes were promoted as less harmful to health than regular cigarettes by the Administration in the name of implementing the FCTC. Additionally, the extent of the latest tax hike is only modest and the increase needs to be passed on from wholesale to retail prices. Furthermore, public awareness of the health hazards of tobacco remains poor in China, and the present text-only Chinese health warnings on cigarette packaging are ineffective. To make a giant leap forward in China's tobacco control, and hence achieve improved health and life expectancy for its people, China can and must go even further. A bold reform—separating governmental tobacco control activities completely from the tobacco industry—is an essential next step. Tobacco in China: taming the smoking dragonBeijing's air pollution makes news headlines around the world: hazy images of people's faces shrouded in masks and iconic monuments obscured by smog are now as synonymous with the city as the monuments themselves. As expatriate residents of Beijing, our friends and family from home often ask us: “But living in Beijing, how do you breathe?” We hope the answer is more easily after June 1, 2015, when Beijing's new smoke-free law will take effect.1 Although Beijing's outdoor ambient air pollution routinely makes the news, indoor air pollution in the city—and across China—is often worse than outdoor air pollution. Full-Text PDF