Smokers refusing to pack it in

The reaction by the elderly gentleman he caught smoking in Guangzhou's main bus station surprised Chen Weiguang, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress. "Do you know that smoking is prohibited in public in Guangzhou?" Chen asked him. The smoker, unprepared for the question let alone the bevy of inspectors and trailing journalists, reached into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Chen. "Have one?" Chen laughed at the nervous offer but declined. Chen was leading an inspection trip on Oct 13, part of a three-day enforcement review the congress had ordered following the introduction one year earlier of a smoking regulation that was once considered the strictest in China. The regulation was the first to ban smoking in government buildings. However, for anti-smoking advocates, that smoker's reaction was a dismal and ironic moment in their efforts to cure the addiction to nicotine in a country with more than 356 million smokers. About half of China's 300-plus cities now limit smoking in public, but ineffective enforcement is typical. The fundamental reason, these advocates say, is an absence of government resolve because tobacco taxes provide a sizable part of government revenue. "I think these so-called surprise inspections are just another showcase," Li Ziliu, Guangzhou's former mayor, said on Oct 24 at a symposium about Guangzhou's regulations of smoking. "Tobacco control needs to start with government leaders." During one surprise visit to the city government building, inspectors caught staff trying to sneak the ashtray out of an official's office. China has no national law for smoking control, and it didn't meet the Jan 9 deadline to ban smoking in public indoor places, as it pledged to do under the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The global anti-tobacco treaty came into force in China five years ago. Improvements have been seen in some cities where smoking regulations were implemented in time for international events, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 Shanghai Expo and the Guangzhou Asia Games last November. But when the events were over, the rules became loosely enforced, and loopholes have made these regulations ineffective in weaning China off tobacco. Smokers in public places continue to puff away with abandon.