中國控煙承諾基本失敗

Five years ago, China pledged to ban all indoor smoking by Jan. 9 of this year as it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, yet currently China lacks a national law that bans smoking in public places, and the existing laws don't ban tobacco advertisements.

據《京華時報》消息，2006年，中國簽署《煙草控制框架公約》，承諾5年后，也就是今年的1月9日全面施行公共場所室內禁煙。但時至今日，中國不僅沒有一部針對公共場所禁止吸煙的全國性法律，連現有的《廣告法》等法律也并未全面禁止煙草廣告。煙草行業是政府財政收入的納稅大戶，這一現狀導致政府很難對其“下手”。另外高稅率也沒有抬高煙草的價格。

中國每年吸煙導致的死亡人數約120萬，超過艾滋病、結核、交通事故以及自殺人數的總和。二手煙的受害者在過去3年里也增加了2億。

Public smoking ban fails in China

Five years ago, China pledged to ban all indoor smoking by Jan. 9 of this year as it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, yet currently China lacks a national law that bans smoking in public places, and the existing laws don't ban tobacco advertisements, the Beijing Times reports. The taxes and revenues generated from the tobacco industry make the government reluctant to impose regulations, and the price of tobacco remains low despite a relatively high tax.

Over 1.2 million people die of tobacco related illnesses each year in China, more than the sum of those who die of HIV/AIDS, TB, in traffic accidents and suicides. Victims of second-hand smoking have increased 200 million over the past three years.

(China.org.cn January 5, 2011)