China pushes ahead with ban on indoor smoking

China’s Ministry of Health has announced revisions to its guidelines on smoking in public places, banning smoking in indoor public places from 1 May. China ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005 but missed the 9 January 2011 deadline to ban indoor smoking.

The move has been welcomed by tobacco control activists and public health experts. “This is a very significant move, as it comes from the central government. It’s a very important step to denormalise smoking and to protect people from the serious hazards of secondhand smoke,” said Tai-Hing Lam, head of the Department of Community Medicine at the University …