Experts said China should strengthen tobacco-control efforts so it can fulfil its pledge to the World Health Organization to ban smoking in indoor public places by January.

"There's a lot to be done to live up to our promise to the World Health Organization. Most fundamentally, we need a detailed national tobacco-control plan for governments at all levels across the country to act on," Huang Jinrong, associate researcher of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday.

China committed itself to creating an indoor smoke-free environment within five years after the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into effect in China on January 9, 2006.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said by the end of 2006, nearly half of China's 337 large- and medium-sized cities had rules to curb smoking in public areas.

In 2010, Shanghai and Guangzhou unveiled bans on smoking in public working areas.

Huang has called for a national tobacco-control plan to ensure the implementation of local laws.

"We are glad to see local laws for tobacco control. But they are hard to implement without national regulation," he said.

With 350 million smokers, China is home to one third of the world's smoking population. Statistics from the Chinese disease control center show smoking is linked to the deaths of at least 1 million people in China yearly while about 530 million people are affected by second-hand smoke.

Jiang Yuan, a deputy director of the center, said the country faces difficulty in meeting its pledge to the convention.

"Many don't really know the harm caused by smoking and second-hand smoke," she said.

The tobacco industry in China employs 500,000 people. As the world's largest tobacco producer, China has to protect its economy while realizing its tobacco-control promise to the world, Jiang said.

She said smoking-triggered medical costs and environmental pollution exceed tobacco industry revenues.

According to WHO, 168 countries have ratified its tobacco control treaty, and 17 of the signatories, including France and Canada, have banned smoking in public places totally.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2010)