China, world's leading tobacco user, moves to ban indoor public smoking
15:14, 9 January 2014
HONG KONG. January 9. KAZINFORM China, the world's largest tobacco consumer, is aiming to ban indoor smoking in public areas by the end of the year.
About one in three cigarettes smoked in the world is in China, according to the World Health Organization. And more than half of Chinese men smoke, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2010. Although the nation's health ministry issued guidelines in 2011 to ban smoking in places like hotels and restaurants, they haven't been "strictly enforced," according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency. The China's National Health and Family Commission is now working on a tobacco control law with clear punishments, according to Xinhua. Read more