{"id":1336,"date":"2014-01-01T14:21:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T21:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theloungeisback.wordpress.com\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2014-01-11T06:54:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T06:54:24","slug":"china-orders-government-officials-to-stop-smoking-in-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1336","title":{"rendered":"China orders government officials to stop smoking in public"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"China<\/a><\/p>\n

Got this interesting article from the Epoch Times<\/a>, a website by Chinese dissidents about China. It’s become home to a lot of HuffingtonPost refugees who are understandably pissed off about having to use their real names to comment on HP.<\/p>\n

I did a quick search on Epoch Times, and they have a ton of articles about smoking. I’m linking to two of them today (well, because I hate college football.). Anyway, the upper echelon of the Communist Party central committee in China has ordered<\/a> public officials to stop smoking in public. Here’s the new rules:<\/p>\n

Officials are not allowed to\u00a0smoke in schools, hospitals, sports venues, on public transport or any other places where\u00a0smoking\u00a0is\u00a0banned, or to smoke\u00a0or offer cigarettes when performing official duties, the official Xinhua News said. They also cannot use public funds to buy cigarettes, and within Communist Party or government offices tobacco products cannot be sold nor adverts displayed.<\/i><\/p>\n

This is likely a major breakthrough. For the first time, very high-level attention and support is being given to anti-tobacco efforts,\u201d said Ray Yip, head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation\u2019s\u00a0China\u00a0program. The foundation has been working on\u00a0smoking\u00a0cessation campaigns in the country.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>China smokes more cigarettes than any nation on the Earth (more than 300 million Chinese smoke in a nation of 1.3 billion), and this might be the first step in a public smoking ban in that country. Don’t look for China to crack down on smoking entirely, since the cigarette industry is a state-run monopoly (U.S. Big Tobacco has tried to make inroads into China, but have been seriously rebuffed — Big Tobacco has since given more of its attention to India and Africa.)<\/p>\n

According to Epoch Times:<\/p>\n

Smoking, which is linked to an average annual death toll of 1.4 million people in\u00a0China\u00a0in recent years, is one of the greatest health threats the country faces, government statistics show. The annual number of cigarettes sold in the country increased by 50 percent to 2.52 trillion in 2012 compared with 10 years earlier, according to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, which is overseen by health authorities.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

So interesting first step to try and curb smoking in China. I’ll peruse Epoch Times from time to time to see what else they offer on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Got this interesting article from the Epoch Times, a website by Chinese dissidents about China. It’s become home to a lot of HuffingtonPost refugees who are understandably pissed off about having to use their real names to comment on HP. I did a quick search on Epoch Times, and they have a ton of articles … Continue reading China orders government officials to stop smoking in public<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,57,60],"tags":[587,177],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-smoking-2","category-smoking-bans-2","tag-china","tag-smoking-in-china"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/china-XHG103-AP.jpg?fit=512%2C323&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-ly","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1880,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1880","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":0},"title":"Can China really stop 350 million people from smoking?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting read from NBC about China getting serious about cracking down on smoking. China is the biggest smoking country on the planet with 350 million smokers (compared to about 45 million in the U.S.). According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 million people in China die every year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"140117_china_deng_smoking.380;380;7;70;0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/140117_china_deng_smoking.3803807700-229x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1340,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1340","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":1},"title":"Awesome anti-smoking ad from Thailand","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is great. Another find on Epoch Times. An outstanding anti-smoking ad from Thailand. Two little kids walk up to a bunch of smokers holding cigarettes asking for a light. In every case, the adults refuse to give the kids a light and instead give them a lecture about how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/g_YZ_PtMkw0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3408,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3408","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":2},"title":"Beijing ban on smoking working … mostly","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a story from ForeignPolicy.com (first time I've used a story from this site) about Beijing's (latest) two-month-old indoor smoking ban. China is notoriously lax about enforcing any sort of environmental or public-health laws (this is why you don't want to buy dog treats made in China), but according\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beijing"","block_context":{"text":"Beijing","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=562"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/china-smoking-gettyimages-82298347-cropped.jpg?fit=960%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/china-smoking-gettyimages-82298347-cropped.jpg?fit=960%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/china-smoking-gettyimages-82298347-cropped.jpg?fit=960%2C574&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/china-smoking-gettyimages-82298347-cropped.jpg?fit=960%2C574&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3528,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3528","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":3},"title":"Study: One in three men in China will die from smoking","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Devastating study in the Lancet this month stating that unless smoking rates are cut in China, one-third of men in that country will die from tobacco-related disease. Something about this article that jumped out at me. China obviously has the highest population of any nation on the planet -- 1.3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2373,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2373","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":4},"title":"Study: Smoking may increase risk of suicide","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"July 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting story from Epoch Times. 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I know that sounds nuts, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "nicotine"","block_context":{"text":"nicotine","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=260"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3509,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3509","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":5},"title":"Asian casino mecca Macau seriously considering smoking ban","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"September 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a bit of a surprise. 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