Rules on the Range of Smoking Ban in the Public Areas of Beijing will be formally enforced on May 1, 2008.

According to the new rules, no smoking areas must be arranged in such public places as restaurants, parks, netcafes and airports and they must be separated from the smoking areas, which the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau says is a transitional measure before smoking is totally banned from these areas in three years. The rules also ask that hotels and inns must have smoke-free rooms or floors after May 1.

There are about 3.1 million smokers in Beijing, and women and children are the main groups affected by passive smoking. Dang Xiaohong, spokesperson at BMHB, says that the city has trained more than 1000 smoking control supervisors to learn about the relevant legal punishment procedures and they will be sent to work at different parts of the city to supervise the smoking ban. In addition, each work unit has been asked to have smoking ban supervisors of their own to be responsible for the smoking control of their unit. It is estimated that more than 100,000 smoking ban supervisors will be on duty from May 1.

Units that violate the rules will receive a warning, a notice to rectify or face a fine of RMB1000-5000, while an individual who smokes in the no smoking areas will be fined RMB10.

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