(CRIENGLISH.com)
Updated: 2008-04-25 10:32

Beijing will enact a new citywide public smoking ban on May 1, in a push for a smoke-free city during the Summer Olympics this August.

The new regulation extends the smoking ban to more public venues and indoor areas in medical facilities, elementary, secondary and primary schools, museums, business halls, public transportation, cultural heritage sites, and sports venues and fitness centers, China News Service reported Thursday.

"Banning public smoking is in line with international conventions, and fulfills our promise of a smoke-free Olympics," Sun Xianli, vice director of the Beijing Committee of Patriotic Public Health Campaign, was quoted as saying. "We have intensified smoking control in public areas as part of pledge to host a Green Olympics, Scientific Olympics and Humanitarian Olympics."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Health Organization (WHO) signed a formal agreement in 1993 to strengthen cooperation in the field of sports and health. One joint project based on this agreement was to promote the smoke-free Olympics.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is the first one that will be required to conform to the agreement, which also stipulates that tobacco advertisements and tobacco sponsors will be turned down.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Report on the global tobacco epidemic said tobacco advertising hooks more potential young smokers.

The ministry issued a 2006 report saying that about 50 million Chinese teens smoke, accounting for 14.28 percent of the country's total smokers.

The Beijing Committee of Patriotic Public Health Campaign will be legally entrusted to enforce the smoking ban in public venues. The Committee has branches and over 1,100 staff members stationed all over the city.

Rao Yingsheng, an official with the organization, explains that the Committee functions as a coordination body between the city's bureaus of health, commerce, tourism and finance, and the Commission of Development and Reform.

Rao said the staff members are undergoing training to gear up for the upcoming ban.