25 Percent of Beijing's Tobacco Vendors Fail to Stub Out, Continue Selling Cigarettes Near Schools Illegally

Beijing minors looking to light up have ample opportunity, despite prohibitive regulations. On July 23 Xinhua reported that more than 25 percent of the capital's schools are within a 100 meter radius of tobacco vendors, despite laws banning cigarette sellers from being so close.

Equally unsettling for parents is how many of those vendors opted not to put up required warning signs about the hazards of smoking, and how many of them sell illegally sell cigarettes to minors. These findings were announced by a panel inspecting policing under the city's legislature, officially known as the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. This oversight group surveyed the perimeter of Beijing 1570 schools to determine the breadth of tobacco related violations.

Sun Kanglin, vice head of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said police and education supervisors must collaborate more extensively to curb these violations.

Some might argue that the panel's findings about sellers are more alarming than statistics about young smokers. A 2015 survey by the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, for instance, determined that seven percent of primary school students and nearly 14 percent of high school students had tried smoking. Beijing also enacted its first successful smoking ban in 2015, which barred lighting up at workplaces, in indoor public places and on public transportation.

A year after the policy took effect, an ENCA article cited findings by The Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission, which said that smoking in public places went down from 12 percent to four in those first twelve months. It attributed part of that success to strict fines (RMB 200 for individuals in violation, RMB 10,000 for lax businesses). But it also hailed "12,000 'anti-smoking campaign volunteers' – from primary school pupils to pensioners – registered in Beijing" as being key to that success.

Perhaps more minors taking part in that campaign, along with their elders, can help counter the number of vendors selling cigarettes near schools. After all, the ban against selling cigarettes within 100 meters of a school was part of the 2015 anti-tobacco policy, and officials are surely eager to see those juvenile friendly regulations have as much success as the other aspects of the ban.

Photo: chinatopix.com