Protecting China from Secondhand Tobacco Smoke

Abstract

The 1980s saw the burgeoning of local and national smoke-free laws to protect nonsmokers from the harms of tobacco smoke in China. Most of these early laws had loopholes in them in particular allowing designated smoking areas and enforcement was generally poor. More localities passed smoke-free laws in the 2000s following the guidelines of the FCTC and high compliance was achieved in several cities especially in Beijing and Shenzhen. Valuable lessons were learned in pushing for smoke-free initiatives with collective partnership and in ensuring effective implementation through mobilizing political leadership. The momentum generated from these successes failed to expand to the entire country when the first national comprehensive smoke-free law proposal was blocked by the tobacco monopoly. Interference from the tobacco monopoly in smoke-free policy making intensified after the successes in implementation in Beijing and Shenzhen. The power wrangling between tobacco control advocates and the tobacco monopoly in the smoke-free arena and beyond will likely continue both at national and at local level. The engagement of the tobacco monopoly in tobacco control policy making continues to be a major impediment in tobacco control in China. This serious conflict of interest needs to be addressed before any major development in tobacco control policy can be achieved.