Indoor life gets a little more difficult for Beijing’s estimated 4.2 million smokers in fewer than 10 days as the city enacts the nation’s toughest ban on indoor toking June 1.

For the remaining non-smoking millions, that likely means more enjoyable meals and visits to nightclubs that won’t result in getting a contact nicotine buzz from the secondhand smoke.

On the eve of the long-planned ban, a survey by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning revealed that 4.2 million people over the age of 15 smoke in Beijing, or almost a quarter of all adults.

These smokers huff on an average of 14.6 cigarettes daily. That means nicotine fiends are consuming over 61 million cigabutts every 24 hours. That’s 5,200 kilometers of cigarettes, enough to form a continuous line from Beijing to Lhasa and back, if laid end to end.

The frontlines in the war on smoking will be in Beijing’s bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The commission’s survey indicated these are the top spots where people report being exposed to secondhand smoke. A full 90 percent of all respondents say they’ve encountered smoking in bars, while 66 percent say they’ve been exposed to it in restaurants.

A quick survey of a few of Beijing’s food and beverage hotspots reveals that some are looking forward to the ban, while others are concerned about its impact on business and the issue of selective enforcement.

"I’m actually happy with the ban because it will make it easier for me to make the change to non-smoking," said Kenn Bermel, proprietor of The Local, which currently allows indoor smoking. "I think most smokers will be cool about it."

Jeff Powell, who runs Frost in Xingfucun, allows smoking in his venue after 8pm, but will move to a complete ban after June 1. "I’m not willing to take the hit of a RMB 10,000 fine if someone gets caught," he said.

Greg Savarese, who runs Ricci Cafes in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, has never allowed smoking in his cafés and has good news for those in the F&B business fretting about how a ban might affect the bottom line: enforcing a no-smoking environment has never been a problem for Ricci’s business.

"If anything, [being a non-smoking venue]makes it a more comfortable environment," he said. "It makes the non-smokers stay longer for an extra cup of coffee or an extra piece of cake."

While he has one or two customers a month who might light up a cigarette, his staff is trained to immediately approach the table and politely ask them to put it out. And smokers almost always understand.

"I’ve never had a customer choose to leave because they couldn’t smoke," he added.

Comparitively speaking, Savarese says, Beijing’s already better off than Guangzhou in terms of smoking restrictions.

"Guangzhou is certainly far worse [in terms of smoking]," he said. "The rules are not as strict, nor as enforced, as they are in Beijing."

Carl Setzer of Great Leap Brewing agrees with Savarese: the no-smoking policy Great Leap has adhered to since its initial opening hasn’t hurt business at all — in fact, it has helped.

"People appreciate the diligence with which we train our staff in enforcing the policy," he said. "I’d account a lot of our success to the fact that we’ve always held to that principle."

The bands that ply Beijing’s bars and clubs circuit are also expected to benefit from the ban.

"I’m really excited about this," said Ian Burns, who sings lead for his band the Beijing Beatles. "We play up to two hours of Beatles’ stuff at any of our gigs, and to do that in a smoke-filled room is not easy."

Chris Hawke of the Hutong Yellow Weasels put it another way: "I noticed some of the bigger bands refuse to play gigs unless smoking is banned that night," he said. "One of the main reasons I’d like to become more famous is so the Hutong Yellow Weasels can do the same."

Chandler Jurinka, who runs the Slow Boat Brewery Taproom, hasn’t allowed smoking since it opened two and a half years ago, and says the policy has been a blessing for both customers and staff.

"Our Taproom is fairly small so [permitting smoking]was never up for consideration," he said. "Smokers don’t really mind, and from the beginning we had folks bringing their kids. Our non-smoking staff are also very appreciative they aren’t forced to breathe other people’s smoke during their shifts."

Tube Station Pizza will be eliminating their designated smoking areas in all branches of their restaurants come June 1.

"We won’t be putting ashtrays on the tables and will replace our Designated Smoking Area signs with No Smoking signs," said Marketing Manager Victoria Yang. "If customers insist on smoking, we will politely ask them to go outside."

While most welcomed the new restrictions, some remain concerned about selective enforcement of the ban.

Joshua Lally, who runs Sugar Shack and Lush in Wudaokou, permits smoking only in the evenings at his student-centric bars.

"I’d love to go full non-smoking, but it would put us at a competitive disadvantage if we were the only ones that complied," he said. "If [the authorities]are serious, we will follow, but if there’s little enforcement, our customers will just go elsewhere to hang out where they can smoke."

In addition to a complete indoor ban, some outdoor areas will be non-smoking after June 1 as well, such as:

– Youth activities facilities such as playgrounds;
– Sporting fields;
– Areas with cultural relics such as the Forbidden City;
– Designated waiting areas like lines for buses;
– Temporary large-scale outdoor activity areas;
– Outside maternity clinics and childrens’ hospitals.

While Beijing has attempted (and failed) to institute smoking restrictions in the past, this time the city seems a few degrees more serious. Venues face fines of up to RMB 10,000 allowing smoking, while smokers themselves will be subject to fines of up to RMB 200.

Beijing residents also have become more sensitive to the issue of air quality in recent years due to public uproar over hideously awful outdoor air quality measurements which are now regularly reported by the city government.

The city’s official anti-smoking campaign has leveraged this newfound sensitivity to air quality by pointing out that indoor smoking is far worse in terms of PM 2.5 than even the most hideous bad air day in the city.

While the city has pledged enforcement and regular checks, they are also encouraging social media users to join in a grass-roots attempt to help them stamp out indoor smoking. You can do your part if you are a user of WeChat, by adding the "No Smoking Beijing" WeChat account and reporting violations of the policy.

To add the account, use WeChat to search either "无烟北京" or the pinyin "wuyanbeijing". 

Once you’ve followed the account, you can report smoking violations by going to the third option on the menu bar at the bottom "控烟行动" (marked as 1 below) then choose "我要举报" (marked as 2) from the pop-up menu:

Once you’ve done that, you can type a message in the field, upload pictures and add the address where you spotted the violation.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on May 22, 2015.

Photos: No Smoking Beijing

The scene was a common one for any parent of a young child – a friend’s birthday party. There were all the usual suspects: cake, balloons, presents, music, and lots of excited screaming children. I dropped my daughter off and vowed to return before the allotted pick-up time.

I actually made it back in time to witness the ritual of the presents being opened. The kids all sat in a circle and after each gift was opened, it was passed around so that the young guests could inspect it. That’s when I noticed a nefarious presence I had not seen in a children’s party before. There, in the middle of the action, was the father of the birthday-girl with a cigarette in his mouth.

I should point out that my North American friend was puffing away on an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) since he had given up smoking the “bad” kind. When one of the kids asked him about his cigarette, the father nonchalantly explained that it was not a real cigarette. Pardon me, but what the hell does that mean?

Users of e-cigarettes, convinced the things are harmless to others, are using the things in places and situations where cigarettes have long been banished. The thing may not pose an immediate health risk, but it certainly is sending kids mixed messages about the harmfulness of smoking. I can recall just a few years ago where this same parent went to great lengths to hide his smoking from his own kids. Now, armed with an e-cigarette, his smoking is no longer confined to out on the balcony or in dank stairwells.

Frankly, this openness is also making some potentially embarrassing situations for me. For example, do I post up photos of a dad toking on an e-cigarette while sitting in a circle of kids opening birthday presents? I’ve got a feeling the comments from the netizens would not be very kind.

Photos: Ozont (Flickr)

Beijing’s municipal government has adopted a comprehensive smoking ban for all indoor venues. But as we’ve seen in other measures, the city is in no hurry to have clean air. As such, this new set of regulations won’t take effect until June 1, 2015.

Along with smoking banned in all indoor venues, outdoors, it will be prohibited near schools and at historic places. No smoking will be permitted on public transportation, either.

Forgive our skepticism, but this was tried once before in 2008, and failed, miserably. Why did it take seven years to try again? One tenet of the new smoking ban indicates that smoking rooms will be removed from Beijing Capital International Airport. What will that prove or improve?

There are about as many smokers in China as there are Americans, in the neighborhood of 300 million. While smoking is not nearly as prevalent or acceptable as it was in China a decade ago, it is still far more publicly permissible here than in most other countries.

We hope the ban succeeds, but it does beg some important questions: who is going to enforce the ban? What will the fines and other punishments be? Who is going to deal with the off-the-handle reactions often seen when people are asked to curtail their publicly unacceptable behavior? It’s possible that an all-out, zero tolerance effort, like we saw with drunk driving, could be very effective. We’d like to be pleasantly surprised on this one.

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 This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on December 1, 2014

Photo: news.com.au vis the Beijinger

One of the goals of the Chinese government of 2011-2015 is to ban public smoking. Just before the Chinese New Year holidays, a directive from the Ministry of Education was issued that bans smoking on school grounds according to the People’s Daily.

The circular affects all schools nationwide. The highlights are:

"nobody is ever allowed to smoke anywhere within primary and middle schools, kindergartens and secondary vocational schools."

These schools must have smoking ban signs put in conspicuous places and should not set up smoking areas. They must not seek sponsorship from cigarette brands or allow cigarette advertisements to appear on campus."

The responsibility of the new ban’s implementation will be tasked to school principals as well as the establishment of an assessment system that will require the participation of teaching staff and students as mentioned in the memo. Punishment for failure of implementation was also touch on but not specified. 

Stores around schools will not be allowed to sell tobacco.

This move comes after a month after officials were banned from smoking in public areas such as hospitals, schools, on public transport and sports venues. China is the world’s largest cigarette producer and consumer with an estimated over 300 million smokers.

How effective this ban will be is yet to be seen.

Photo courtesy of Nicholas Raymond (Flickr)

Though (relatively) blue skies are back, the astronomical AQI figures from last weekend’s heavy smog reignited the debate about the real and perceived risks of air pollution. In a thought-provoking post on My Health Beijing, beijingkids columnist and BJU doctor Dr. Richard Saint Cyr examines the health impact of smoking cigarettes versus exposure to PM 2.5 from air pollution.

At first, the verdict doesn’t look good for smokers. Dr. Richard cites an email exchange with C. Arden Pope of Brigham Young University, one of the world’s leading experts on air pollution:

[Dr. Richard]: Even with a PM2.5 of 880 ug/m3 recorded last weekend in Beijing, that still only comes out to ~14 mg of PM2.5 per 24 hours, barely the equivalent of one cigarette, which has 12 mg on average. Despite the scary news reports about our pollution emergency, is it still accurate to say this is still not even the same risk as 2 cigarettes, and any casual smoker every day is exposing his heart and lungs to much more dangerous levels than even today’s air pollution?

Pope: Yes. Cigarette smoking is an incredibly effective way to expose an individual’s body to very high levels of harmful fine particulate matter and combustion-related nasty stuff. High levels of ambient air pollution are an effective way to expose whole populations to harmful fine particulate matter and associated combustion-related pollutants. These high levels of air pollution that we are seeing in Beijing may be similar, in terms of excess risk, to smoking a cigarette or two per day.

Last week, a Facebook friend posted about an earlier entry on My Health Beijing, setting off a firestorm of comments in the process:

Smokers complaning about Beijing air pollution: you are a special kind of dumb.

Even if the pollution had stayed at its 755 [AQI] peak for an entire day, the damage to a normal adult’s lungs would have been equivalent to about 1/6 of a cigarette. An average day isn’t even 1/6 of a cigarette.

Next time you open your mouth to moan, how about you stuff it with a delicious Zhongnanhai instead?

One person responded with the argument that smoking is a lifestyle choice, while being exposed to hazardous levels of air pollution is not. Actually, it is, says Dr. Richard. Living in Beijing is what he calls a “modifiable risk factor,” which also includes behaviors such as smoking, eating poorly, and not doing enough exercise.

In the end, the risk of air pollution is all relative. It matters far more whether you fulfill seven health measures set out by the American Heart Association.

1. Not smoking
2. Having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less
3. Getting enough physical exercise (more than 150 minutes per week of moderate activity)
4.  Eating a diet that includes three or more servings of fruits and veggies daily

The remaining measures are too technical for your average Joe (e.g. having a total cholesterol level of less than 200mg/dL or milligrams per deciliter), but the idea is that lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar – combined with the above-mentioned criteria – all contribute to a lower risk of mortality from all diseases of the circulatory system.

So the next time Beijing experiences another high-AQI day, stop and consider all the facts before jumping to any conclusions about the effects that air pollution may have on your health. That’s one way to breathe easier.

Related posts: What’s That Air Purifier Really Doing for You?, Smogasbord: Everybody Is Talking about Beijing’s Bad Air

Photo by ernop via Flickr

Beijing has an official smoking ban in place, but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise. It sometimes seem that that baijiu-swilling and cigarette-smoking hordes are everywhere you go, including ostensibly family-friendly cafes.

Well, worry no more! The always informative Dr. Richard Saint Cyr is taking a stand. He’s written a roundup of popular cafes on his blog My Health Beijing, scoring them each on a scale of 1 to 10 for their enforcement of the smoking ban. He writes:

I am disappointed especially in the tyranny of the male masses who continue to smoke in the clearly marked smoke-free sections of restaurants and hotels. It’s all too common for the wait staff to cower in fear and not want these lawbreakers “lose face” by asking them to stop.

The best of the bunch was (perhaps surprisingly) American behemoth Starbucks:

Starbucks: 9/10 — Starbucks definitely deserves praise for what they’ve done in China. Before Starbucks came along, there were essentially zero cafes and teahouses for people to escape from the odor of smoke on their clothes. Starbucks came along with its 100% smoke-free policy (indoors, at least) and continues to spread this radical idea into smaller and smaller cities in China. On the rare times I’ve seen people try to light up, I’ve seen the wait staff quickly tell them to please stop. The only major complaint I have is with their outdoor seatings, where I often will see people light up.

The worst offender was Korean chain Maan Coffee, a result made even more disappointing by the fact that the cafe actually has family-friendly waffles and lots of space:

Maan Coffee: 2/10 — I was very disappointed in Maan (漫咖啡), a newer chain in a very impressive glass building near Lido Park. I really wanted this to be my new hangout, but their spacious and lovely second floor is completely reserved for smokers, and the stench and pall was so strong that my wife and I got headaches in five minutes and had to leave early, ruining our planned long stay. Their non-smoking area on the first floor is much smaller, so clearly Maan has decided which demographic to coddle. I mostly feel bad for their workers who are subjected to such high levels of secondhand smoke every day.

Read the original post to find out Dr. Richard’s other picks.

Do you have a cafe to add to the “Yay or Nay” list? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Sijia Chen

Breast Cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer deaths in women, and though the proportion Chinese women who die from breast cancer may be relatively fewer than in most large, developed nations (about 5.7 out of 100,000 deaths in China, as opposed to 14.7 out of 100,000 deaths in the United States) breast cancer rates have risen dramatically in the past two decades – a 2007 report cited a 23 percent increase in Beijing between the years of 1997 to 2007. 

Now a more recent China Daily report (via the People’s Daily) cites a survey conducted between 1999 to 2008 by the Cancer Foundation of China that indicates Chinese women developing the disease at “a much younger age” than women in other countries.  

Nearly 40 percent of the 4,200 patients surveyed were found to have developed the disease between the ages of 40-49, an average almost “10 years younger than in the West.” As a result experts are advising Chinese women to begin cancer screening starting as early as 36 year of age. Unfortunately little is known about the actual causes of breast cancer, however it has been linked to genetic factors, diet, alcohol consumption, smoking (including second hand smoke) and air pollution (though scientists deemphasize the notion that stress is a direct cause breast cancer).

The number one culprit, however, seems to be diet: A study of Chinese immigrants to the United States conducted in the late 1990s found alarming increases in breast cancer rates for Chinese immigrant women who had been living in the US for over 10 years. The report implicated the Western “meat and sweet” diet as the main cause, particularly for cancers caused by “estrogen-receptor positive tumors” (the study found a 90 percent increase in the chances among the surveyed immigrant women of developing this type of cancer).  

Dr Richard over at myhealthbeijing has a series of informative posts summing up the latest research and the current debate over when, exactly, is the right time to get a mammogram.  

Nevertheless, if you’re in Beijing and would like to get screened, check the Beijing United Family Hospital website for more information on mammograms. 

The forthcoming government ban on smoking at all indoor public venues goes into effect on May 1 and with this ban, China joins a growing list of countries, ranging from Bhutan and Bahrain, to India, Russia, the US and beyond, that have enacted some form of official ban on tobacco use. 

This should be welcome news for long-suffering non-smokers, but as we’ve already pointed out, conventional wisdom casts doubt over how, exactly, such a ban would be enforced (venue owners, for now, would bear the brunt of fines) in a land where roughly a quarter of the population lights up on a regular basis, half of all male doctors partake, over 500 million suffer from respiratory ailments due to second hand smoke and more than 1.2 million people die from smoking related ailments each year. Add to the fact that the last round of smoking bans during the Olympics in 2008 were announced and promptly ignored (save for in cabs) in most public spaces, and it’s difficult to believe that this new smoking ban will have much of an effect in the near future. 

For non-smokers, however, the good news is that studies have shown smoking bans are effective – an opinion piece in The Guardian cites a 2003 British Medical Journal study on smoking bans in workplaces, which combined results from the United States, Germany, Canada and Australia and led the researchers to conclude that “workplace smoking bans reduced the numbers of smokers by about 4 percent” and the number of cigarettes consumed per person by about “1.3 a day on average.” 

But, of course, such efficacy hinges on consistent and reasonable enforcement. And in the bigger picture – namely, China – these encouraging statistics are dwarfed by the sheer immensity of the smoking population and a critical lack of public awareness of just how harmful cigarette smoking can be (the fat businessman who thinks nothing of sauntering into a crowded elevator with a lit cigarette and my neighbors who habitually smoke in the unventilated hallway next to our front door and daughter’s bedroom come to mind).

Public awareness campaigns can be a mixed bag as well. Studies have indicated differing reactions to cigarette warning labels based on the viewer’s perceptions of self-esteem (the lower the self-esteem, the less effective the warning), and likewise, smoking in movies has been shown to exert an undue influence on smoking behavior in kids, even more so than from their parents and peers. 

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that a sea change in the public’s perception of smoking has occurred in many countries – particularly in North America and Europe – all spurred on by a consistent and persistent barrage of public service announcements, anti-smoking education (from very early on) and legislation. This fundamental shift hasn’t occurred overnight in these countries, nor should the same be expected of China.

But if the aim is to make dramatic cuts from the estimated RMB 252 billion a year in health care costs attributed to smoking, it’s going to take a hell of a lot of time, money and effort – all of which begs the question: Who, exactly, will actually supervise, enforce and abide by all this? I’m not holding my breath that it will be the venues.