Smoke signals from tobacco

There is no denying the harm tobacco causes to human health, so we need determination and corresponding action to ban smoking in public places.

True, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine jointly released a three-year tobacco control plan (2012-2015) on Tuesday.

But the plan, despite being aimed at banning smoking in public places and promoting legislation to this effect, explains how difficult it is to control the use of tobacco. The reason: the tobacco industry accounts for 6 percent of the country's revenue and employs more than 20 million people.