In a draft rule recently submitted to the State Council, China's Ministry of Health states that smoking shall be banned from all public transportation such as taxis, buses, air-conditioning trains, planes and waiting halls.
In addition, operators of these public venues are asked to fix a clear sign in a special No Smoking area to warn people to not smoke. Furthermore, they should not provide ashtrays or sell cigarettes in the No Smoking areas.
The draft rule goes further and cryptically says operators of public venues shall be punished if they fail to report epidemics or accidents that endanger the public health or fail to take effective measures to prevent them from happening. Serious violators will have their business licenses and heath certificates revoked.
China's Ministry of Health is now collecting comments on the draft rule. The deadline for the reception of the opinions is July 22, 2007.
