Wang Yuanyuan
SHENZHEN will enforce smoking bans at all educational institutions, on public transport and administrative offices in the first half of next year, the city center for chronic disease control and prevention said Friday.
All indoor areas in these venues would be off-limits to smoking, including waiting rooms and ticket halls at public transport stations and enclosed staircases in office buildings, the center said.
Shenzhen banned smoking at medical institutions this year.
Most residents supported the smoking ban, with more than 82 percent thinking it was good to ban smoking on public transport, according to a survey conducted by the center last month. The survey showed that 77 percent supported banning smoking at schools, 57 percent were in favor of the ban in offices, 53 percent supported the ban in hospitals and 47 percent favored a ban on smoking in restaurants.
Banning smoking at these public venues is aimed at preventing more people, particularly nonsmokers, from breathing secondhand smoke, Wang said.
According to research by the center released Friday, more than 57.5 percent of nonsmokers were subjected to second-hand smoke for at least one day a week.
The research was conducted among more than 2,200 adults aged between 18 and 45 and 26.4 percent were smokers. Of these, nearly 50 percent were male and 2.7 percent were female smokers.
The research showed that residents awareness of secondhand smoke should be improved. Although about 88 percent of people knew that smoking could cause diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, only 12 percent knew that secondhand smoking could also cause these diseases.
Cigarettes were popular in Shenzhen, the research showed. More than 68 percent of residents gave cigarettes to guests at home, while more than 33 percent gave cigarettes as presents in the past year.
The city will next increase residents awareness of the hazards of secondhand smoking. Secondhand smoking may cause respiratory diseases such as asthma. If a nonsmoker is in a closed room with lots of smoke for one hour, it is the same as smoking a cigarette, Wang said.
