If you are a smoker planning to take the high-speed train in China, be warned: the Public Security Bureau will start enforcing stricter rules on those who smoke on the trains.
The new regulation, which came into effect on Monday, is a two-tiered law aimed to ban smoking on trains. First-time offenders will be fined up to RMB2,000 (USD$300), get temporarily banned from buying tickets, and forced to “promise” not to smoke on trains again by signing a contract. Second-time offenders can be banned for life from purchasing high-speed train tickets.
The strict ban is due to the fact that smoking can trigger the smoke alarms installed on high-speed trains, which will either slow down or even stop the train all together. However, public awareness on this issue has been dangerously low: in Sichuan alone, 20 smoking violations have been reported in less than a month.
Smoking has also become a national health concern in China. It is estimated that half of all men in China smoke, and a medical study in the Lancet Journal claims that up to a third of all Chinese men will die from smoking unless they quit immediately. At least one million deaths in China in 2010 were attributed to smoking.
Consequently, the World Health Organization urged China to issue a nation-wide ban in May. Just days later, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission submitted a draft national ban. The draft aims to ban smoking in restaurants, bars, schools, and hospitals throughout China.
On the city-level, Beijing has introduced some of the strictest citywide anti-smoking laws, while Shanghai is said to be introducing a ban sometime this year.
[Images via China News, Oriental News, BBC]
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