Smoke-free policies in China : evidence of effectiveness and implications for action

Overview

The public health toll of tobacco use in China is enormous. Smoking causes more than one million deaths each year, and exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) causes an additional 100 000 deaths. Close to 740 million people, including 182 million children, are exposed to the harms of tobacco smoke every day. Without effective measures to ban smoking in public places, death and disease due to SHS will continue in China, worsening the devastation caused by tobacco use.