Beijing’s Smoking Rate Falls Under 20 Percent for the First Time

Beijing’s attempts to snuff out smoking continue to pay dividends, with the percentage of people over the age of 15 who smoke dropping to an all-time low of 19.9 percent, according to a survey conducted by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Public Health.

This is the fourth major survey the commission has conducted since the city passed a ban on indoor smoking on Jun 1, 2015.

The last time Beijingers were polled in 2019, 20.3 percent said they smoked. That means that, as of 2019, 73,000 fewer Beijingers are lighting up. While that sounds like a drop in the bucket, it’s progress: Since more stringent smoking regulations were put in place six years ago, the population of smokers in Beijing has dropped by 630,000.

The desire to quit among Beijingers is on the rise as well – in 2019 only 16.2 percent said they wanted to kick the habit, while now 19 percent say they’d like to quit.

So how does Beijing measure up to other places? The capital is ahead of China as a whole, where 25.8 percent of all over-15s smoke. Beijing’s 19.9 percent smoking rate is slightly higher than Shanghai's, which reported a 19.7 percent rate last May; while it is lower than that of Paris (21 percent as of 2019). However, Beijing's rate is nearly double that of New York City (10.9 percent).

And despite the gradual reduction, more than one in three Beijing men (36 percent) are still smokers. Women, on the other hand, are doing much better in this regard, with a mere 2.7 percent saying they smoke.

Meanwhile, exposure to secondhand smoke has also been reduced over the last two years, but remains a sizable problem. Exposure rates of secondhand smoke in restaurants, for instance, dropped from 40.4 percent in 2019 to 31.5 percent in 2021.

While the decline should be applauded, one wonders why almost one in three Beijingers still say they’ve been bothered by secondhand smoke in restaurants more than five years after a complete ban on indoor smoking was put in place in 2015.

We’ve lost track of how many times Beijing has attempted to ban smoking, but Jun 1, 2015 – five and a half years ago – is when the city formally announced a ban on smoking in all indoor areas.

Like a lot of regulations, a lot depends on enforcement. Beijing restaurant owners contacted for this story say that there are few if any spot checks on smoking at their establishments, though most uphold the regulation on their own accord.

Those that do allow smoking run the risk of customers lodging a complaint, which could result in fines or worse.

And while regulating smoking in a dining room is relatively easy, it becomes more difficult when smokers duck into locked restroom stalls to toke up.

Likewise, smoking in office buildings has not been totally eradicated, as anyone who has visited their office restroom or stairwell can attest. In the latest poll more than one in five people -- 23.4 percent -- mentioned they have been bothered by secondhand smoke in the workplace, down from 27 percent two years ago.

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