China Steps Up Efforts to Control Smoking – Tobacco Reporter

China is stepping up efforts to control smoking. According to national health authorities, 44 cities introduced or changed regulations in 2023, bringing the total number of cities with appropriate regulations across the country to 254.

According to Xinhua news agency, 24 regions in China have introduced smoking laws at the provincial level, and the percentage of the population protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws is constantly increasing.

Experts from the National Health Commission (NHC) published the data on the Saturday before World No Tobacco Day on May 31.

Meanwhile, as China pledges to protect 80 percent of its population with anti-smoking laws by 2030, tobacco control experts on Sunday urged the country to implement national smoking control laws as soon as possible.

According to Wang Lu, a health expert at the NHC, smoking control, including preventing smoking and encouraging smokers to quit, is a viable method for both population-wide disease prevention and individual health care.

Restricting smoking is not intended to deprive people of the right to smoke, but to free people from harm caused by secondhand fumes, Zhang Jianshu, a senior expert at the China Tobacco Control Association, told the Global Times on Sunday.