As of August this year, 14% of my country’s population is protected by comprehensive smoke-free legislation.
Speed up the pace of national smoke-free legislation
□ Our reporter Zhu Ningning
From September 15th to 27th, the 14th National Games, a major sports event that has received much attention, was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
While solidly building a systematic and complete epidemic prevention and control system, the 14th National Games advocated the concept of healthy National Games and proposed to host a smoke-free National Games.
According to the relevant person in charge, the smoking control areas of the Fourteenth National Games include inside and outside the competition venues, the National Games Village and the reception hotel rooms, and it is required to post eye-catching no-smoking signs in the no-smoking areas.
At the same time, all public transportation such as taxis and buses are required to be completely non-smoking.
During the entire competition period, tobacco advertisements, sponsorships, including soft advertisements are prohibited, and stores on the stadium are not allowed to display or sell tobacco products.
The health hazards of tobacco have become one of the most serious public health problems in the world today.
In 2019, the State Council issued the "Healthy China Action (2019-2030)", proposing to carry out 15 major special actions, which clearly set the proportion of the population covered by comprehensive smoke-free regulations as an assessment target for tobacco control work, and proposed to 2022 and 2030 , The smoking rate of people over 15 years old is lower than 24.5% and 20% respectively; the proportion of the population protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws reaches 30% and above and 80% and above respectively.
Statistics from the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that as of August this year, with the joint efforts of all parties, the population protected by comprehensive smoke-free legislation accounted for 14% of the national population.
However, there is still a gap to reach the target of 30% by 2022.
Industry insiders call for speeding up the process of my country's tobacco control legislation and introducing comprehensive smoke-free regulations at the national level in due course, so that the goals of tobacco control actions can be implemented.
Local tobacco control legislation has achieved remarkable results
The population protected by comprehensive smoke-free legislation refers to the number of people who are protected by smoke-free legislation to avoid exposure to tobacco smoke in indoor public places, indoor workplaces, and public transportation.
"Comprehensive smoke-free regulations should have two elements." Xiao Lin, deputy director and researcher of the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that one is to make it clear that indoor public places, workplaces and public transportation are smoke-free; the other is that the law enforcement body is clear. There are penalties such as fines for individuals or places that violate the law.
In recent years, my country's local urban tobacco control legislation has achieved certain positive results.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 20 cities have enacted tobacco control laws and regulations. Especially between 2015 and 2019, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Qinhuangdao and other cities have introduced comprehensive smoke-free legislation, and all indoor public places have been completely banned. , Has become the benchmark for comprehensive smoke-free legislation in various places.
In addition, there are patriotic health regulations promulgated by some provinces and cities that clearly stipulate that “smoking is prohibited in indoor public places, indoor workplaces and public transportation”, and fines and other penalties are imposed on places and individuals for illegal smoking.
National tobacco control legislation is imperative
Driven by local legislation, my country’s tobacco control situation has improved compared to before.
However, it is difficult to achieve the goal of "Healthy China 2030" only by relying on local urban tobacco control legislation.
The introduction of national tobacco control legislation is imperative.
China is a signatory to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention").
Since 2006, the "Convention" has officially entered into force in China for 15 years.
Over the past decade or so, deputies to the National People’s Congress and CPPCC members have continued to pay attention to the topic of tobacco control, and have submitted proposals, suggestions, and proposals in various fields, including a total ban on smoking in public places.
During this year’s National People’s Congress, Chen Jingyu, deputy to the National People’s Congress and vice president of Wuxi People’s Hospital in Jiangsu Province, suggested the introduction of a nationwide "Regulations on the Control of Smoking in Public Places." Smoking in vehicles protects the public from tobacco smoke.
Liu Xuanlin, deputy director of the Medical Security Law and Policy Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, and executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Health Law, pointed out that tobacco control legislation must have a bottom-up driving force to mobilize ordinary people to participate.
"The control of disease risk factors, especially the control of some unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles, needs to be based on a certain socio-economic development and needs to reach a certain level. If people realize the importance of health and cultivate conscious and voluntary Habits and behaviors will affect and promote the entire legislative process." Liu Xuanlin said.
In addition, some insiders pointed out that there is a relatively feasible way to promote the national smoke-free legislation process, that is, through appropriate channels and methods to amend the "Public Places Sanitation Management Regulations" and the implementation rules, and increase the corresponding penalties to expand the smoking ban. To achieve a new breakthrough in tobacco control legislation.
Strict law enforcement is also a key link
In addition to strengthening tobacco control legislation, strict law enforcement is also an important guarantee for achieving the goal of a healthy China.
From June 1, 2020, the Basic Medical and Health and Health Promotion Law will be implemented.
This is my country's first basic and comprehensive law in the field of health.
Among them, Article 78 of the law clearly stipulates that the state shall take measures to reduce the harm of smoking to the health of citizens.
Control smoking in public places and strengthen supervision and law enforcement.
It should be noted that in practice, because some tobacco control legislation fails to consider the actual situation, the provisions lack feasibility and pertinence at the implementation level, and it is difficult to achieve the expected effect.
Among them, the lack of a supporting enforcement system is one of the typical problems.
Because smoking bans in public places involves all aspects, some places introduced indoor smoking bans legislation that stipulated multiple competent authorities with the power to enforce smoking bans. However, due to the lack of human, financial and material resources of the law enforcement agencies, the effect of implementation was greatly reduced, and finally fell into "anyone can control," It’s embarrassing that no one can handle it well.
In order to solve the difficulty of tobacco control enforcement, some cities have made innovative attempts and gained a lot of useful experience.
For example, from August 1, 2019, the "Qinhuangdao City Smoking Control Measures" came into effect, and Qinhuangdao City became the location of China's first smoke-free beach.
In addition to strict legislation on tobacco control, Qinhuangdao also clarified the responsible parties, stipulating that the Qinhuangdao Municipal Health Commission is the administrative department in charge of tobacco control work, and 32 departments such as education, sports, human resources and tourism are key member units, each performing its own duties.
Another example is that Shenzhen has launched a tobacco control wheel war since 2017. It is led by the Shenzhen Tobacco Control Office and cooperates with law enforcement units to conduct live-streamed cooperative operations through news media without greeting surprise operations.
After several rounds of war, a good atmosphere of public opinion gradually formed.
It is reported that in the future, Shenzhen will also explore a closed-loop management model of "citizen complaints + departmental law enforcement + grassroots governance + assessment and evaluation", and use "C" to leverage "B" to open up the "Shenzhen Tobacco Control Map".
“In China, 400,000 non-smokers die each year due to exposure to second-hand smoke, and this is completely avoidable.” Jiang Yuan, former director of the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized, “There is no safe exposure level for second-hand smoke. "Comprehensive smoke-free environmental legislation" standard laws and regulations, together with strict law enforcement, can eliminate second-hand smoke in public places and workplaces and save lives."