Stricter smoking ban from March
Print Edition
SMOKING will be banned in all indoor public venues and workplaces in Shanghai from March next year.
The ban will cover hotels, restaurants, offices, airports, railway stations and entertainment venues after a new smoking regulation was approved by the Shanghai People’s Congress Standing Committee yesterday.
Under the new regulation, hotels cannot have rooms designated for smoking, and restaurants and entertainment venues will not be allowed to have smoking areas.
Smoking will also be banned in government agencies’ offices, meeting rooms and canteens.
Airports, railway stations, ferry ports and bus stations will have to shut down smoking rooms currently in use.
The new regulation also extends the smoking ban in outdoor areas to public venues for minors, such as primary schools, kindergartens and training institutes, children’s hospitals, historic venues, stadiums and public transport waiting areas. Performance areas such as stages and audience areas will also be smoke-free.
“The regulation aims to take a stricter control on smoking and extend the smoking ban areas to protect the public from second-hand smoking,” said Ding Wei, deputy director of the congress’s legislation department.
The current regulation, introduced in 2009 ahead of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, stipulated that star-rated hotels, restaurants, airports, railway stations and ferry terminals could set up smoking areas or smoking rooms. Hotels were allowed to categorize rooms as smoking or non-smoking.
The new regulation does allow for smoking areas to be set up near public venues, workplaces and transport hubs, Ding said.
However, they must be away from the public and major passageways and have signs warning that smoking is harmful to health.
They will also have to be approved by the city’s fire prevention authority.
Fines for breaches of the new rule are unchanged at 50-200 yuan (US$7-US$29) for individuals and up to 30,000 yuan for companies.
Law enforcement officers can fine individuals and companies on the spot if anyone is caught smoking in no-smoking areas. The new rule also encourages the public to send pictures of offending behavior to the 12345 hotline.
Owners of public venues will be required to ask customers to stub out their cigarettes. If customers refuse, owners can provide evidence and report offenses to law enforcement agencies, otherwise they will face fines of up to 30,000 yuan.
“Apart from the stricter regulations, we also take the feasibility of the rules into consideration,” Ding said.
Under the new rule, “the city government can make stipulations on setting up indoor smoking rooms under special circumstances,” Ding said.
Indoor smoking rooms are necessary, for instance, at companies or factories where naked flames are banned outdoors.
He said companies setting up indoor smoking rooms would have to get prior approval.
Indoor smoking rooms have been closed at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao international airports as well as the city’s railway stations. Outdoor smoking areas have been set up at these places.
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