China has announced the latest draft ban on smoking in public places and advertisements.

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission's draft, smoking will be banned in all public indoor venues and some outdoor places including bus stops and areas near maternal and child care centers.

The rules suggest setting up smoking areas in tourist spots, protected cultural relic sites, parks and amusement parks.

Managers of smoking-free areas who catch smokers are required to discourage them from smoking and can report them to the police if the smokers refuse to comply and disturb public order. Individuals who break the rules may face fines ranging from 50 to 500 yuan ($8.15 to $81.5).

The draft also requires the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to supervise films, television dramas and other programs that contain tobacco trademarks or covert tobacco advertisement, scenes of smoking in non-smoking areas, and plots portraying youths smoking.

The media that violate these rules will be fined from 5,000 to 30,000 yuan.

The draft prepared by the country's health authority will be submitted to the legislative affairs office of the State Council for review and public feedback will be encouraged.

As for schools, the Ministry of Education issued a circular on January 29, demanding that "nobody is ever allowed to smoke anywhere within primary and high schools, kindergartens and secondary vocational schools."

However, a nationwide ban on smoking in public places will not be enforced while the draft is being studied. It is not unusual to see smokers puff away in restaurants, bars and hair salons, the Xinhua News Agency reported in September.

Beijing banned smoking in public places such as schools, hospitals, banks and public transport in March 2008, before the Olympics. It also assigned smoking areas at restaurants and parks. However, the ban was poorly implemented.

China signed the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003, which took effect in 2006. According to the FCTC, China should have banned smoking in indoor public areas completely by 2011.

China is home to more than 300 million smokers and at least 740 million passive smokers. Over a million people in China die from tobacco-related diseases every year, according to the WHO.