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Shanghai government bans indoor smoking in city’s train stations, airports

By Caryn Schwartz (People's Daily Online)    15:29, October 26, 2016

Beginning Oct. 30, the indoor smoking areas at Shanghai’s two major airports, Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao International airport, will be closed for good. The new indoor smoking ban was announced just days after plans for a similar ban in the city’s main train stations was made public, according to Jfdaily.com.

Passengers who want to smoke a cigarette before their flights depart will still be able to do so. However, starting Oct. 30, they will be forced to utilize one of the airport’s outdoor smoking areas rather than the designated smoking rooms that have been set aside for that purpose in the past. There will be two outdoor smoking areas established in Pudong International Airport’s Terminal 1, along with another three in Terminal 2. Hongqiao International Airport will offer two designated outdoor smoking areas in each of its terminals.

According to Jfdaily.com, the decision to ban indoor smoking in the city’s train stations and airports comes after a Fudan University study found that the PM2.5 concentration in train station smoking rooms climbed as high as 6,398 micrograms per cubic meter; the average level was a still-alarming 2,535 micrograms per cubic meter. What’s more, it was impossible to entirely avoid exposing non-smoking passengers to secondhand smoke, even when the smokers were confined to an enclosed room. Therefore, authorities decided to do away with indoor smoking rooms altogether.

Currently, Shanghai’s municipal government is considering expanding the ban to more public spaces around the city, with special consideration paid to hotels, food and beverage establishments and other entertainment venues. Under the current law, these businesses are permitted to maintain a separate smoking section (or smoking rooms and floors in the case of hotels) for use by customers who prefer to smoke inside. However, the new legislation would ban indoor smoking in such businesses entirely.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Jiang Jie, Bianji)

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