Investigation report on public attitude towards carpet smoking ban in ten cities of China

Background and challenges to implementation In November 24, 2014, the legal website of the China State Council published “the regulations on smoking control in public places (Draft)”, and made public comments on the issue. The content of the manuscript is comprehensive and basically close to the FCTC's requirements. It is a relatively perfect tobacco control law and has been well obtained by domestic and oversea. However, as of 2016, the Regulations had not yet been promulgated. In order to understand the attitude of the public smoking ban, the "Regulations" to provide a complete ban on smoking in indoor public places, indoor workplaces, public transport, China Tobacco Control Association selected randomly 10000 people of the public and ask for investigation with questionnaire in ten provinces. CTCA provide these results of this investigation report as a reference to the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council, for constitute and promulgate the "Regulations". Intervention or response Ten cities which have been investigated was selected from ten provinces of 7 administrative regions. We investigate around 1000 people of the public in each city. Gender, age, educational background, smoking, and whether secondhand smoke is harmful to health, attitudes towards total smoking ban, satisfaction of smoke-free environment in public places, workplaces, public transport, , etc.. Results and lessons learnt We have surveyed 11523 people in 10 cities. The public awareness rate of harmful of the second-hand smoke was 95.2%, support for a total ban on smoking in indoor public places, indoor workplaces and public transport rate of 91.9%, the current smoke-free environment satisfaction of indoor public places, workplaces and public transport are 49.3%, 64.5% and 69% respectively. Conclusions and key recommendations The Chinese people has a strong awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke, and has high support for total smoking ban of indoor public places, workplaces and public transport. China's comprehensive smoking ban in public places is ripe for settlement