The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control called on Wednesday for the city legislature in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to ban smoking in all indoor public places.The association made the appeal following a revised amendment to the tobacco control regulation in the provincial capital.The revised draft, issued by the Hangzhou people's congress to its deputies in May, allowed designated smoking zones or rooms in nine types of public places such as entertainment venues, shopping malls and government office buildings, according to the association.However, in the initial draft released by the congress in January to solicit public opinion, it was proposed that smoking should be banned in all indoor public places, indoor workplaces and public transport vehicles.The association urged the congress not to allow the setting up smoking rooms or zones in public places in light of the effect on people's health and the city's image.It has been universally recognized that tobacco leads to many diseases and is a major health threat, said Hu Dayi, president of the association. Setting up smoking zones or rooms cannot insulate the public from the damage of smoke particles, and even the most intricate indoor air conditioning system cannot effectively protect people from the harm of secondhand smoke.Hangzhou's legislature made the revision with the reasoning that it is not necessary to totally ban smoking in indoor public spaces, and a total ban would also be difficult to enforce in the city's many big commercial complexes, Hu said.Wang Ke'an, director of the Thinktank Research Center for Health Development, a tobacco control advocacy group in Beijing, said tobacco companies and authorities, which have long been a major obstacle to tobacco control in China, lobbied the legislature to revise the draft.Sun Jiani, a tobacco control officer from the World Health Organization's China office, said the organization is very concerned about the tobacco control legislation in Hangzhou.The draft bans smoking in some public places, and allows designated smoking zones in other public places, and this worries the WHO a lot, she said. Only a 100 percent smoke-free tobacco control regulation for public places can effectively protect people from the deadly harm of secondhand smoke.Allowing smoking rooms or smoking zones to be set up will only increase the difficulty in law enforcement. A complete tobacco control ban for indoor public places can be done in China, and regulations carried out in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have proved so.The number of adult smokers in Beijing has fallen by about 200,000 since June 2015, when the city banned smoking in all indoor public places and workplaces, the city's health authorities said last [email protected]?(China Daily 06/08/2018 page5)??????????????? debossed silicone braceletscustom wristbands australiasilicone bracelet manufacturercheap silicone wristbands for fundraisingfournisseur bracelet silicone
Britain has crafted a new plan to improve the quality of its exports of waste paper to China in response to recent Chinese bans.The new quality-control initiative was developed by the UK Recycling Association and the Chinese Certification and Inspection Group in London.The plan involves inspections at depots to ensure that scrap paper destined for China meets specifications. Because British depots already have existing quality control systems in place, the new plan is optional for UK companies. But companies may choose the additional scrutiny to be certain of avoiding delays and related costs.Britain used to export millions of metric tons of waste each year to China before the Chinese government stopped accepting imports of certain types of scrap in January on environmental grounds.Under its new regulations, China banned certain kinds of waste plastic and paper, and also reduced the threshold for contaminants in shipments of recycled material.At the end of this month five regional seminars will be held for British exporters, delineating which types of scrap paper will be accepted.UK material has seen a huge improvement to meet the quality standards set by the Chinese government, said Huang Shouyun, London managing director of China Certification and Inspection Group, the agency accredited by the Chinese government to inspect material for export bound for the country.This new quality control plan will meet the Chinese inspection requirements while maintaining high-quality fiber exports to China, he said.Simon Ellin, CEO of the recycling association, said: The partnership with CCIC London to develop this quality-control system is proving the UK commitment to high-quality fiber exports. This system will prove to be beneficial to exporters in ensuring their material meets the rules of the export destination.The UK exports around half of the 5 million tons of scrap paper and cardboard it collects each year, and China is the main recipient. Before the Chinese ban on certain types of mixed paper imports, Britain exported 1.4 million tons of paper and cardboard to China each year.Between 2012 and 2017, Britain exported 2.7 million tons of plastic to China, according to estimates from Greenpeace. Since the ban, British exports of scrap plastic to China have fallen by 98.3 percent, according to UK government data.
