A team of 59 legal experts is pushing for legislation that will ban smoking inside public premises ahead of the 23rd World No Tobacco Day on May 31.

China signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, and ratified it in 2005. It came into effect in 2007.

The government is just six months away from implementing its promise to curtail smoking inside public venues.

Tobacco output and the sale of cigarettes have been consistently rising. This is perhaps the surest indication that there has been no decline in the number of smokers, estimated at 350 million two years ago.

Nearly 60 percent of women at home, and around 80 percent at public venues suffer from the ill-effects of secondhand smoke. Yet, most do not persuade smokers to stop lighting up, either at home or in public places.

Tobacco control is hard, and the government must speedily implement the ban on smoking indoors in the interest of non-smokers.

National legislation and local laws have to be amended to make clear to smokers that they should respect the rights of non-smokers and smoke only in designated areas.

The strict enforcement of such laws will ensure that, while smokers have the freedom to smoke, they should do so without inconveniencing non-smokers.

The team of legal experts is certainly expected to exert its influence and push the central government to expedite the legislation on tobacco control.

This may just be the ray of hope needed for non-smokers, who have long suffered from passively inhaling the noxious fumes.

(China Daily 05/31/2010 page8)