Butt out – Shanghai gets tougher on smoking

Shanghai plans to drop the adult smoking rate to 18 percent or lower by 2030.

The city's smoking rate in 2021 was 19.4 percent, meeting the target of China's 2030 healthy plan, said officials from the Shanghai Health Promotion Center on Thursday.

"To achieve the goal of 18 percent is still a challenge in Shanghai, requiring wider health promotion and strict intervention," said Tang Wenjuan from the center.

In 2010, Shanghai became the first city in the nation to implement an anti-smoking law.

Smoking is prohibited in all public indoor venues, workplaces and public transportation in the city.

"With the increasing public awareness on smoking control, the violation of smoking in indoor public places dropped by 37.5 percent in 2009 to last year's 12.1 percent," Tang said.

"Our next step is to regulate outdoor smoking places and people's behavior of smoking while walking to protect others from second-hand exposure."

Local health authorities have been promoting health education in recent years. About 38.25 percent of the local population have acquired proper health knowledge, according to a questionnaire last year – the highest score in the past 14 years.

A total of 26,268 residents aged between 15 and 69 answered the survey.

"People's understanding of infectious diseases, healthy diet and chronic disease management kept improving from previous years," said Zhang Hao, vice director of Shanghai Health Commission.

"About 65 percent of people have a proper understanding of the harm of smoking."