Smoke-free Olympics in China

Tobacco war in China starts with smoke-free Olympic Games. LISTEN

China ignites tobacco wars with smoke-free Olympic Games - AFP

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

by Charles Whelan

BEIJING (AFP) - Dozens of security guards wielding metal pipes made history this month when they spilt the first blood in the tobacco wars over the Beijing Olympic Games.

State media reported that on May 1 dozens of security guards beat up workers taking a cigarette break during construction work on the National Stadium, centrepiece of next year's Olympic Games.

Olympic organisers are planning a smoke-free Games next year and legislation imposing strict curbs on tobacco use at Olympic sites will be announced on Thursday, to coincide with World No Tobacco Day.

"We have been in final talks with the International Olympic Committee and other groups to fine-tune draft regulations that will be released on Thursday," said Zhang Jianshu, head of the Beijing Health Bureau's publicity department.

The clashes at the Olympic Stadium, one of several venues where smoking will be strictly banned during the Games, indicate how tough the battle to control tobacco use will be in China.

Some 400 million smokers are free to light up at will in most public places in the country and rudimentary anti-tobacco legislation is routinely ignored.

"We are very much at the beginning stage of the battle against tobacco in China and a smoke-free Olympics will hopefully help us get the message out," said Yang Jie, who works with the anti-smoking programme at China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A war of words over tobacco erupted in March at the annual session of China's national parliament, when anti-smoking activists were accused of undermining the entire country's stability.

Zhang Baozhen, a senior official in the state-run tobacco industry, said riots erupted when the former Soviet Union collapsed because smokers could no longer get cigarettes. Tobacco curbs could trigger similar unrest in China, he suggested.

"The dangers of smoking are there, but a smoking ban could cause instability," he was quoted as saying in the Chinese media.

Tobacco is a government-run 160 billion dollar-a-year business that employs some 60 million people in productions, supply and sales.

It netted 31 billion dollars in taxes for the government in 2005, enough to pay for the running costs of the Beijing Olympics 15 times over, according to researchers at Beijing University.

But smoking also kills some one million Chinese a year and incurs five billion dollars in annual medical bills, according to the World Health Organisation.

However, the human cost of China's addiction to nicotine has not generated the kind of opposition seen in other parts of the world that has led to blanket tobacco use bans in public places in some countries and severe restrictions in others.

"Part of the problem is that the tobacco industry is run by the government," said Yang, at the Centers for Disease Control.

"This complicates the whole issue and leads to government policy that is not clear-cut."

One lonely anti-smoking crusader has earned national fame for roaming the country and snatching burning cigarettes from the mouths of smokers.

Zhang Yu gave up his job to become China's first and only full-time anti-smoking crusader in 2001, according to Chinese media reports.

His technique is confrontational. Travelling through the towns and cities of China he snatches lighted cigarettes from smokers then dishes out anti-smoking lectures and literature.

"I've made fighting tobacco my life's work," he told the local newspaper in Yichang, in southwestern Sichuan province, during a visit there recently.

"I am just one person and my power is limited but I will carry on to the very end."

Zhang's quixotic crusade has drawn public attention but he has won over few converts so far.

The new regulations to be announced Thursday will include bans in all of the 37 Olympic competition sites and dozens of other training sites during the August 8-24 Games next year.

The ban will spread to other areas including the Olympic village, designated Olympic hotels, restaurants, and entertainment areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/...:80/s/afp/20070529/hl_afp/oly2008chntobacco_070529042948

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The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th century forced the IOC to adapt the Games to the world's changing social circumstances. Some of these adjustments included the creation of the Winter Games for ice and snow sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with physical disabilities, and the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes. The IOC also had to accommodate the Games to the varying economical, political, and technological realities of the 20th century. As a result, the Olympics shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allow participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of the mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games.

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