The publicity head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Mao Qun’an, made the announcement at press conference at the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion in Shanghai. “The nationwide regulation to control smoking in public is undergoing the legislative process and is hoped to be announced and carried out this year,” said Mao.

Under the terms of the nationwide ban, smoking will be prohibited at all indoor public venues, workplaces and public transportation facilities. Smoking will also not be permitted outdoors in places like primary schools, kindergartens, children’s training institutes, historic sites, children’s hospitals and stadiums. Personal violators may be fined up to 500 yuan (US$73), while companies caught allowing smoking on their premises may be fined up to 30,000 yuan and may even be stripped of their business license.

Just last week, Shanghai announced it will implement a city-wide indoor smoking ban next year, following the lead of Beijing’s 2015 indoor smoking ban.

A draft for the national smoking ban had first been proposed to Chinese lawmakers in 2014. Mao said the biggest obstacle to the proposed regulation had been the public’s lack of awareness about smoking health dangers, which has since improved.

When the nationwide smoking ban was proposed this past summer, the ban was criticized for allowing establishments the option of setting up segregated smoking areas. “That’s like setting aside a peeing area in a swimming pool,” said Cui Xiaobo, deputy director of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association.

Other measures aimed at reducing smoking in China included a 2015 cigarette tax, credited for lowering consumption by three percent.

Enforcing smoking bans already in place has been a difficult, yet lucrative task.

Beijing has punished 575 companies and 2,300 individuals for violating the ban over the past 16 months, taking in 1.12 million yuan ($170,800) in fines as of April.

With over half of all men in China estimated to be smokers, cigarette use in China has been blamed for a growing epidemic of smoking-related health problems. A medical study published in the Lancet medical journal suggests that up to a third of all Chinese men will die from smoking unless they immediately quit.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says a million people in China die of tobacco-related illnesses annually, with second-hand smoke contributing to some 100,000 deaths each year.

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Stuck with three roommates who smoke, the student clipped a fan to a window above the entrance of his dorm room. He then fixed a long plastic bag over the window helping the fan to draw air from outside into the bag. He then connected the other end of the plastic bag to a box the student wears over his head, protecting him from the second-hand smoke.

The DIY setup certainly wasn’t expensive. Even the box appears to be re-purposed, originally serving as the box for the fan.

Even if our inventor prefers the confines of his cardboard haven over confronting his roommates, the municipal governments of Beijing and Guangzhou have gone ahead and implemented city-wide indoor smoking bans. Hopefully a proposed nation-wide smoking ban will soon take effect, and this poor soul won’t have to hang-out in his dorm with a box over his head.

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Twenty-three percent of Shanghai people between 15 and 69 years-old are smokers, the majority of which are men. Some admit to have started smoking as early as 10 years-old.

Even though the smoking rate is declining, it’s coming down too slowly for some. “The smoking rate remained stable in the city for years and we are pushing for non-smoking workplaces to encourage more people to quit smoking and protect non-smokers,” said Chen De of the Shanghai Association on Tobacco Control.

Sixty percent of poll respondents said they were exposed to second-hand smoke at their workplace at least once a week, while 27 percent claim they were exposed daily.

Shanghai’s current anti-smoking regulations only forbid smoking in 13 public spaces such as primary schools, kindergartens and children’s hospitals. Exceptions are allowed for restaurants and businesses, depending on their size.

With cities like Beijing and Guangzhou having already introduced smoking bans, Shanghai residents are overwhelmingly in favor of implementing an indoor smoking ban. A survey of over 25,500 respondents conducted by the Shanghai Health Enhancement Commission found that 93 percent of Shanghai residents want an indoor smoking ban in the city.

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That’s the consensus of a recent study on adult tobacco use conducted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the study, China has 316 million smokers accounting for 27 percent of the country’s total population. More significant however is that in 2010, the same percentage of the country were smokers. When you account for annual population increases, there are actually 15 million more smokers in 2015 than there were in 2010.

The survey, which consisted of 15,000 respondents over the age of 15, revealed that 52 percent of all Chinese men smoke, compared with just 3 percent of women. On average, Chinese smoked 15.2 cigarettes per day, compared with 14 in 2010.

The study however wasn’t all doom and gloom. Anti-smoking laws have proven effective at reducing secondhand smoke in China. Since 2010, the number of non-smokers reporting exposure to secondhand smoke in their workplaces has dropped seven points to 54 percent. Meanwhile, exposure to secondhand smoke has been halved in primary and middle schools, and even fell 17 points in government buildings to 38 percent.

The survey also claims exposure rates have fallen in restaurants, hospitals, and on public transit.

16 Chinese cities have instituted smoking bans, including Beijing, although local residents frequently light up in defiance.

More than 1 million people in China die every year in tobacco related illnesses. About 740 million are routinely exposed to secondhand smoke, contributing to another 100,000 deaths annually. A recent study went so far as to suggest that a third of all Chinese men under the age of 20 will die prematurely if they do not stop smoking.

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