22 percent of Guangzhou citizens smoke, much lower than the national average 35.8 percent. And the city is now preparing to compete for the domestic title of “No Tobacco Ad City”.

According to Xu Guihua, the vice director of China Association of Tobacco Control, China now has 350 million smokers and another 540 million people exposed to secondhand smoke. That means every 2 smokers “breed” more than 3 involuntary smokers. Another worrisome situation is that although the number of domestic smokers slightly decreased, more women and youths became smokers.

Xu said, an effective way for tobacco control is to ban related advertisements. So far, 14 provinces and 88 cities of China have issued regulations to ban smoking in public places. Guangzhou started drafting such regulation last year.

The city has applied for the “No Tobacco Ad City” title in 2003 and 2006, but both applications failed. This is the 3rd attempt of the city for the title.

Currently in Guangzhou, many public spaces, such as banks, cinemas, bus, gas station and airports, have banned smoking, and many restaurants have set up nonsmoking areas and citizens are more aware of rejecting or avoiding secondhand smoke. 

Editor: Yan