‍By CGTN’s Hu Nan‍

Shanghai municipal government passed an amendment proposing a stricter “no smoking under roofs” smoking ban on November 11 last year - it entered force on March 1, 2017. 

After nearly four months of preparation, the expanded smoking ban has been well received by local residents. According to a local authority report, over 90 percent of Shanghai citizens welcome the stricter rules. However, it also says one fifth of permanent Shanghai residents - nearly four million people - are smokers.

To reach out to the large number of smokers, over 3.2 million smoking ban brochures have been posted on almost every corner in public places. The pamphlet advocates the “three-step solution” to stopping public smoking: personal persuasion; reporting to the premise’s management; calling citizen hotline “12345” to report the case. The responsibility of implementing the smoking ban lies not only on the enforcement departments, but on everyone, to step up and stub out smoking for good.

An increasing number of smokers are trying to quit according to a cardiology doctor in Shanghai Ruijin Hospital. The facility’s smoking cessation clinic has seen a small uptick in patients this year.

Smoking addiction is both a mental and physical illness, which requires multidisciplinary teamwork, concerning psychology, pneumology, cardiology, and even obstetrics departments. So if your efforts to quit by willpower alone have proved a failure, please go to professionals for tailored treatment.