On June 1, 2015 Beijing imposed what became known as the “strictest smoking ban in history." Two years later and the ban appears to have helped decrease the number of smokers in the capital.
When Beijing rolled out the ban two years ago, it directly impacted the smoking habits of the over four million adult smokers across the city. The change stemmed from the attempts made to clean up Beijing’s international image during the 2008 Olympics, followed by the Ministry of Health guidelines in 2011 to try and curb cigarette addiction while alleviating the health consequences associated with second-hand smoke.
Because previous laws were mostly ineffective, Beijing opted to pioneer a drastic strategy: banning smoking in indoor workplaces, airports, public places and transport and even tourist attractions.
The change saw fines soar from RMB10 to a staggering RMB200 as a result. Authorities also compelled public establishment owners and managers to enforce the law by setting fines of up to RMB10,000 for letting people smoke in their buildings. Since the law went into effect, Beijing has literally collected millions of renminbi in fines.
At the end of 2016, the Beijing Patriotic Health Campaign and the Beijing Municipal Health Commission issued findings on the total number of smokers. Two years into the ban smoking rates, for those aged 15 years and above, was 1.1 percentage points less than in 2014, Xinhua reports. In real terms, this equates to 200,000 fewer smokers citywide. Moreover, the quitting rate – which is the percent of people who quit at some stage in the survey period – increased by 1.9 percent to 16.8 percent.
Direct positive public health impacts have also occurred from the smoking ban, particularly in the field of fire prevention.
“The smoking ban has cut the number of fires in the city sparked by cigarette butts by more than a half” People’s Daily reports.
Despite the public’s acceptance and aggressive implementation, CCTV, for example, shows that as little as 30 percent of the city's adults recognized the effects of smoking. With this in mind questions remain about the overall effectiveness of the new ban: Can the recent drop in smoking be attributed to harsher laws and additional restraints? Does the decline reflect broader social changes throughout the city?
Whatever the cause, it looks like fewer and fewer Beijingers are choosing to light up.
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