Shanghai's anti-smoking crackdown nets 2.17m yuan in fines

Shanghai inspected over 226,000 units in its anti-smoking campaign last year, fining 888 institutions and 1,010 individuals a total of 2.17 million yuan (US$297,982), local health authorities claimed on Thursday.

Entertainment venues, office buildings, restaurants, and public transportation waiting areas are the places with the highest incidence of violation of the city's anti-smoking rule, they said.

Citizens have voiced support for a complete smoking ban and a healthy public environment. Some of them have even offered to conduct checks and inform the administration.

The number of no-butt venues decreased by 1.7 percentage points, while 13 percent of smoking-free venues were found to be in violation, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from 2023.

Health officials said that they will increase monitoring, particularly in areas with more regular infractions. It will also push for second-hand smoke control in outdoor spaces to achieve the goal of a complete ban on indoor smoking, random smoking in outdoor areas, and smoking exclusively in designated areas.

Shanghai became the country's first city to ban indoor smoking in March 2010. In 2016, the law was amended to impose a total ban. Since late 2022, Shanghai has prohibited the use of e-cigarettes in public indoor settings.

The city pushed for tighter controls on second-hand smoke in eight types of outdoor venues at the end of last year, including outdoor waiting areas, sidewalks and traffic light waiting zones, bus stops, Metro stations, outdoor amusement parks, school gates, hospital entrances, and shopping mall and office building entrances and exits.

The new Metro rule that goes into force on Saturday also includes a ban on smoking e-cigarettes.