Home / News
Exposure to second-hand smoke kills more than 100,000 people in China every year
The skies above Beijing were clear last week. The arrival of world leaders meant an all-out effort to curb pollution, with factories temporarily shut down, limited vehicles on the roads and workers sent on temporary leave. Residents of the pollution-prone capital called it "APEC Blue". It was a lovely respite for a city facing sometimes hazardous levels of air pollution.
Despite the blue skies outside, many places presented another harmful air issue. Smoking in enclosed public spaces is permitted at restaurants, hotels, offices and homes across Beijing. During APEC, the air outside was probably healthier than that in many places indoors.
Beijing has another chance to show the world that it can lead - by making all indoor public places smoke-free. At the end of this month, Beijing's lawmakers will consider the final draft of a new law to mandate that all indoor places become smoke-free. This is a unique opportunity to bring the “APEC Blue” clean air to all indoor public places in the city, permanently.
Having clean air indoors is a basic right that all citizens of Beijing deserve. This is critically important, because outdoor air pollution caused by carbon emissions from factories and cars is not the only kind of air pollution which causes illness and death. Indoor air pollution caused by second-hand tobacco smoke also kills. In China, it is estimated that exposure to second-hand smoke kills more than 100,000 people every year.
The reduction of outdoor air pollution requires substantial structural changes to the infrastructure of the Beijing region – and will take time. Cleaning the air indoors can happen now, and doesn't require massive investment. It just requires the creation and implementation of smart laws to eradicate this health hazard.
Consider this the next time you pull on a face mask to go outside when the pollution reading in Beijing is high. Breathing in Beijing's air on even the most polluted day is not as bad for you as being inside a restaurant, hotel, office or bar where other people are smoking tobacco.
