BEIJING // Wielding an “inspector” badge, volunteer Liu Li follows his nose as he sniffs out violators of China’s toughest tobacco control law yet, enacted a year ago on Wednesday, as Beijing fights to keep its air smoke free.
China has more smokers than any other country, but Mr Liu’s efforts partly explain the relative success of the capital’s ban on smoking in public spaces.
“We’re very sensitive. We can tell from a single whiff if someone’s been smoking,” said the bearded art professor, patrolling a downtown office building.
Mr Liu, 33, moonlights as a leader of blue-vested volunteers who pursue violators and even extract letters of confession from smokers to be passed on to authorities.
“Keep your footsteps quiet,” he whispered to his squad of two, pausing cautiously outside a stairwell. “Sometimes when people hear us coming, they try to run.”
China has the world’s largest smoking population, with 28 per cent of adults and half of its adult men estimated to regularly use cigarettes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says a million people in the country die of tobacco-related illnesses annually, with second-hand smoke contributing to some 100,000 deaths each year.
Beijing’s law enacted last June makes smoking in public areas such as offices, restaurants, hotels and hospitals punishable by fines.
Businesses that fail to snuff out smoking can be forced to pay up to 10,000 yuan (Dh5,580), while smokers themselves can be penalised 200 yuan. Tobacco advertisements are not allowed to appear outdoors.
China’s law enforcement is often weak. While many were sceptical when it was first enforced, experts say that the law has been largely effective.
WHO China representative Bernhard Schwartlander said he was “very happy” with the law, and that implementation had “in many ways exceeded our expectations”.
According to official figures, Beijing raised more than 1 million yuan in smoking fines since last year.
The Beijing health and family planning commission says just four per cent of public places see regular smoking, down from more than 12 per cent a year earlier.
The success is partly due to 12,000 “anti-smoking campaign volunteers” – from primary school students to pensioners – registered in Beijing.
They appear in parks, restaurants and workplaces, ask people to stub out at bus stops, and inspect office buildings in top-to-bottom sweeps.
Nearly 70,000 facilities were inspected last year, officials said.
Though volunteers have no power to issue fines, Mr Liu said most people “are willing to listen to us if we take the right tone, when they see us wearing our uniforms and certificates”.
The aim is to patiently dissuade people, he explained, admitting: “A few can’t really change their thinking and might get a bit violent in their language”.
Enforcement can be shaky in a municipality with more than 20 million residents, with smoking in numerous establishments still tolerated.
Coffee shop manager Wang Haiguang said there has been a decrease in smoking in his shop this year.
But it is difficult to confront customers, he added, as two men nearby dragged on cigarettes.
“They say, I’ll just smoke one and then I’ll go. Since they are clients of ours, we sometimes have to respect their opinions,” he said.
Health activists have called for similar measures to be imposed elsewhere in the country, and a national law has been drafted.
Mr Schwartlander called Beijing’s efforts “very solid” proof that such measures could be extended, but said the draft is riven with “problematic loopholes” such as allowing smoking in individual offices.
“A weak national smoke-free law would ... fail to protect China’s people to second-hand smoke at a very great cost to individuals and the economy,” he said.
One explanation for a weaker national law is the continued clout of China’s state-run tobacco industry, which provides the government with colossal revenues: 911 billion yuan in taxes and profits in 2014.
China’s tobacco regulator shares offices and senior officials with the state-owned China National Tobacco Corp – a near-monopoly and by far the world’s biggest cigarette producer.
* Agence France-Presse
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
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Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
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Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
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Game 1 Raptors 118 Warriors 109
Game 2 Raptors 104 Warriors 109
Game 3 Warriors 109 Raptors 123
Game 4 Warriors 92 Raptors 105
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Company%20Profile
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