Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

In a piece of good news, on November 24, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council issued proposed regulations to ban smoking at all indoor and some outdoor public places. This proposal also touches upon other important tobacco control measures, such as providing help to smokers willing to quit, putting graphic warning pictures on cigarette packages, and eliminating illegal tobacco advertisement and promotional activities.

This proposal has been publicly announced to get feedback from the general public, individuals, and organizations which are interested in the issue, before being finally established as an administrative ordinance to be implemented nationwide. Beijing, the capital, has already taken the lead, with a recent ban on smoking in public places.

As a volunteer expert in the field of tobacco control in China for more than two decades, I'm more than happy to see that measures are finally being taken to tackle a prevailing tobacco epidemic that hurts severely the Chinese people and the nation as a whole.

However, a good law or administrative regulation is just the first essential step, one which needs to be followed by decisive, enforceable and effective implementation.

Therefore, before the regulations are finalized and enacted, a careful and thorough review is due.

First, conduct which violates the regulations should be clearly defined, and applicable fines clearly stated not as a range, but a fixed sum. For example, someone caught smoking in a prohibited public place should be fined a fixed sum, let's say 200 yuan ($32.50). The same is true as applied to restaurants violating the smoking ban. The penalty could be a fixed sum of 20,000 yuan, rather than the current range of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan depending on the "attitude" of the owner. Flexibility in paying fines will create uncertainty and unnecessary complications.

And a good design or work flow is needed to identify, report, and execute punishment when violators are spotted. Let me use the restaurant situation again. Large, easily visible smoking ban signs should be placed on the walls of each room and hallway of a restaurant. The sign should carry the following message, "Restaurant guests are encouraged to photograph any smoking ban violator on site and transmit this photo to an enforcement unit. After this case is investigated and confirmed, the restaurant owner will pay a fine of 20,000 yuan." With this message on the wall, restaurant owners would certainly do their best to stop customers from smoking.

In order to establish a truly smoke-free environment in any organization or work unit, we have to make sure that the heads of these places will strive to keep all offices, including theirs, smoke-free.

This seemingly simple rule has to prevail first, before a workplace has a chance to fulfill the smoke-free requirement.

Again, we should encourage employees to report violators, whoever they may be, to publicly announced enforcement stations.

High ranking officials, VIPs, doctors, teachers and parents should all set good examples themselves by rejecting smoking. If they smoke, they should quit. If they don't, they should reject secondhand smoking, and help their relatives and friends to quit.

Smoking has long been classified by the WHO as a chronic, addictive disease. Therefore, smokers willing to quit need medical and expert assistance to enhance their chances of success. The expenses involved in quitting smoking should be covered by their existing health insurance programs. At this time, programs to help people quit smoking at Chinese hospitals are scarce and ineffective. It's essential to expand and strengthen these practices and encourage smokers to take advantage of this much-needed assistance.

"Smoke-free family" activities should be promoted, to compliment the smoking ban in public places. Having no smoking signs displayed on walls, these families can better stop all visiting friends and relatives from smoking.

Last of all, I suggest that a part of the government's tobacco revenue, a State monopoly in China, for example 1 percent, should be earmarked for tobacco control programs. Also collecting higher tobacco taxes would encourage low-income smokers to quit.

The effective implementation of tobacco control practices in China will improve its air quality, save more trees, reduce fire hazards, and produce a better environment for the Chinese people to live in.   

China ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2006 but failed to reach 2011 targets. Now is the time to fulfill such obligations to improve the health condition of the Chinese people and raise the image of China as a whole.

The author is a tobacco control specialist. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn