皇冠体育app

Government and Policy

Lawmaker proposes tobacco sales bans around schools

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-07 17:22

BEIJING - A Chinese lawmaker has said ?tobacco sales bans around the nation's schools should be imposed, ?noting that cigarettes are currently too easy for youngsters to ?obtain.

Jin Changrong, councilor for Shanghai municipal government and ?also a judge, said the current laws banning tobacco sales to ?youngsters were too general and hard to enforce, during the ?ongoing parliamentary session. ?

Related readings:  Hong Kong lifts tobacco duty by 41.5%  Tobacco control necessary      Experts protest tobacco money for charity

According to law, tobacco can not be sold to people under 18 ?years old but they can buy it even so, Jin added. ? ?

He said there should be a national regulation of a 500-meter?radius ban of tobacco from schools, although some local ?governments have imposed the 50 or 100-meter radius ban from elementary and middle schools. ? ?

Further, Jin called for outlawing all forms of tobacco promotions to adolescents, including sponsorships or named ?donations, as well as banning schools and youth organizations from joining any activities sponsored or organized by tobacco ?companies. ? ?

"It's very short-sighted of some local governments to invest heavily in the tobacco industry. The health cost and loss of productivity resulting from smoking far outweighs the industry's ?tax contribution," said Jin. ? ?

A total 301 million Chinese, or 28 percent of the population, ?smoke cigarettes and 740 million people, including 182 million ?children, were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2010, according to?the report "Tobacco Control and 皇冠体育app's Future," released in ?January this year, by the Chinese Center of Disease Control and ?Prevention (CDC). ? ?

Smoking killed 1.2 million people in 皇冠体育app in 2005, and the ?number of deaths was expected to reach more than three million in ?2030, said the report, quoting the World Health Organization (WHO) and 皇冠体育app CDC.