Verdict can ensure smoke-free railways

IN JUNE LAST YEAR, a college student sued the Harbin Railway Bureau of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province because of the secondhand smoke she was forced to inhale on a train. The student claimed compensation of 102.5 yuan ($15.54), the price of her ticket, plus 1 yuan for mental distress, and sought the removal of all the smoking zones and ashtrays in the bureau's railway stations and trains. The court ruled on Tuesday that the Harbin Railway Bureau should cancel the smoking zones and remove the ashtrays. Legal Daily comments:

The judgment is meaningful as it is the first time that a railway department has been instructed by a court to ban smoking in its stations and on the trains it operates, which is directly related to the health and safety of hundreds of millions of passengers.

According to the Railway Safety Administration Regulation that came into effect on Jan 1, 2014, smoking is strictly banned on high-speed trains and in the carriages of normal trains, it is permitted in the connecting areas between carriages on normal trains, where ashtrays are installed. But the smoke from there slowly permeates the carriages, making all passengers victims of secondhand smoking.