Beijing Enrolls Anti-smoking Volunteers
2015-08-08
CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Chu Yiming
An advert with a message from World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan stating ‘Thumbs Up to Beijing’ in reference to an upcoming implementation of a smoking ban is displayed at a subway station in Beijing, China, 30 May 2015. World No Tobacco Day is marked annually on 31 May, while Beijing prepares to implement a new smoking ban starting 01 June. [Photo: Imagine China]
Nearly ten thousands volunteers will be mobilized to help the enforcement of a blanket smoking ban in Beijing, which took effect on June 1.
Authorities in the city are encouraging more people to join the anti-smoking team to ease the shortage of law enforcement personnel
CRI’s Wang Wei reports.
mp3 http://mod.cri.cn/eng/news/reports/2015/8/0808smoke.mp3
Two months after Beijing introduced the new smoking ban local authorities describe the control efforts as satisfactory.
However, they are confronted with a shortage of personnel- there are more than 4 million smokers in the city, but only around 1,000 law enforcement personnel to police the anti-smoking ban.
Zhang Jianshu, head of Beijing Association on Tobacco Control says they are now recruiting volunteers to support the smoking ban.
Nearly ten thousands people have registered online.
“They are from all walks of life. We previously predicted that most of them will be retired people. The youngest one is only 14 years old, while the oldest 81.”
Zhang Jianshu adds the registration system is still open to the public. Those registered will receive training before they start working.
“We plan to set up a network to cover all the volunteers in different enterprises and institutions. Volunteers will not only file complaints but also handle them. We will forward complaints related to their own workplaces to them.”
Among the registered volunteers are some senior anti-smoking activists.
A woman surnamed Liu is one of them.
“At first those smokers were unwilling to accept our persuasion. But, later they would say thanks to us. The process, changing from rejection to acceptance, makes us feel warm. And so do they.”
Mei Hongguang, vice director of Beijing Patriotic Public Health Campaign Committee calls on more people to join the team to stop smokers from lighting up.
“We have 1.8 million enterprises and institutions in Beijing, and more than 4 million smokers. Based on those huge figures, a smoking ban in the city is an unprecedented job. Before June 1, many people doubted whether we could make it or not. Now, two months have passed, everybody has seen the progress.”
The committee is now soliciting designs for an anti-smoking badge.
Volunteers will wear the newly-designed badges to identify themselves in the future.
Read and see photo.
Smoking in South Korea Is About to Get a Lot Pricier
December 05, 2014
By Bruce Einhorn
Now that Bill Gates has appeared in a Chinese video about secondhand smoke, President Xi Jinping has a high-profile business ally in his campaign against smoking. The effort is gaining momentum: Last week China’s State Council proposed fines on people who light up in public, and on Nov. 28 the Beijing city government approved a ban on sales of cigarettes to minors through vending machines and online. The new law, which will take effect in June, also bans smoking in workplaces, public transport, and other public places.
China isn’t the only government in Asia trying to cut down on smoking. There’s also a big new cigarette tax in South Korea, where this week the legislature took action on an antismoking proposal President Park Geun Hye’s administration unveiled in September. Following the National Assembly’s vote, the average cost of cigarettes will nearly double to 4,500 won ($4.05).
One official unlikely to give a boost to Park’s antismoking drive is her rival in Pyongyang. As on so many issues, the North Koreans and the South Koreans don’t agree when it comes to cigarettes. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered top officials in the North to show their patriotism by shunning foreign brands and smoking only local cigarettes, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Tuesday. Kim “is apparently a habitual smoker,” according to Yonhap. “The brand of his cigarettes,” the agency added, “has not been confirmed yet.”
Thanks to the new tax, Samsung Securities analyst Ilwoo Yang expects a significant drop in demand among South Koreans. Cigarettes sales volume in 2016 will fall about 20 percent compared with 2013, he wrote in a report published on Wednesday. The antismoking campaign has been particularly painful for Korea’s top cigarette maker, KT&G; (033780:KS) (formerly known as Korea Tobacco and Ginseng). Its earnings will decline 18.2 percent next year, according to Samsung Securities, to 701 billion won. KT&G;’s Seoul-traded shares have lost 15 percent of their value this week.
With so many of their countrymen and women hooked on nicotine, President Park and Korean lawmakers have a tough fight ahead. The smoking rate in South Korea is 42 percent-and even after the new tax takes effect and helps suppress demand, 34 percent of South Koreans will remain smokers, according to Samsung’s Yang. That’s much worse than in nearby Japan, where only 19.7 percent of adults smoke, the lowest number since Japan Tobacco first started surveying in 1965.
The smoking rate in the U.S. was just 17.8 percent last year, down from 20.9 percent in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Nov. 28.
An effective anti-tobacco drive in South Korea, China, and other parts of Asia would be a major blow to the world’s tobacco companies. This is one part of the world where they’re counting on growth to counter the declining popularity of cigarettes elsewhere. Euromonitor says tobacco sales in Asia should grow 13 percent annually through 2018, according to a report last month from Bloomberg Intelligence, double the global growth rate.
