The Chinese authorities are due to ban smoking in most public buildings in the capital Beijing, starting on Thursday.

The move is an attempt to discourage some of China's 350 million smokers and also part of wider efforts to clean up the city in the run up to the Olympics.

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Enforcement team

In Beijing, the smokers are everywhere - and it feels like it.

But from Thursday, that may change.

The city authorities will impose a ban on smoking in most public buildings.

They say they are organising 100,000 existing employees to act as an enforcement team.

The authorities had wanted restaurants and bars to be mostly smoke-free as well, but there was too much resistance.

Instead, they must provide non-smoking areas or rooms.

Lack of awareness

"If measures are not taken, with so many smokers in China, in 10, 20, 30 years, the health system will have even higher burden to manage patients with cardio-vascular diseases, with cancer and so on," says Dr Hans Troedsson, the China representative for the World Health Organization.

"So it's a kind of sub-acute health threat here in China," he says.

The imminent Olympic Games have also strengthened motivation.

China wants to promote Beijing as a progressive, modern and clean city.

Less smoke and fewer cigarette butts could really help.

Smoking is deep-rooted in Chinese culture and there is still a general lack of awareness about the impact on health.

The WHO is discussing further measures with the government, like an increase in taxes on cigarettes.

But smoking is big business, and some officials are worried about damaging that.

However, financial loss now could be more than off-set by savings on health care in the future.

(BBC)

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