A lot of restaurants are seriously polluted by cigarette smoke despite a national smoking ban, according to a Beijing-based non-governmental organization (NGO). “Without any punishments for smokers in public places, many establishments are facing serious pollution,” said Feng Yongfeng, a senior researcher with the NGO.

The research demonstrates that the smoke-free restaurants are quite dangerous for sensitive groups and those allowing smoking are very unhealthy for all citizens,” declared Li Qiang, a professor with the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The obtained figures are about 10 times higher than the international standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and are considered “very dangerous to the public”, he said.

The experts inspected 51 restaurants in the capital during four months, including 25 restaurants that do not have restrictions on smoking, 16 with specially designed smoking areas and 10 smoke-free restaurants.“Being an environmental protection NGO, we have to inform the public about the air quality. We also often call the government for new regulations against the dangers of second-hand smoking in order to guarantee our right to breathe clean air,” said Feng.

China prohibited smoking in indoor public places in May 2011, including in hotels, theatres, restaurants, railway stations and airports, planning to protect the health of people leaving in the world’s largest tobacco manufacturer and consumer country.

The regulation adopted in May only claims that business owners have to place non-smoking signs and train staff to ask customer not to smoke,” said Wang Qiuxia, researcher at Green Beagle. “Many smokers in bars declare that it is their right to smoke and we don’t want to debate with them as thus we can lose all our clients,” said a waitress surnamed Lin at Saizeriya in Wudaokou. “The operational staff suffers probably the most from second-hand smoke,” stated Ji Yajie, director of the law office for tobacco control.

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau announced that although some establishments do a bad job of banning smoking, the general situation is “satisfactory”. A representative at the bureau added that the agency has been promoting the legislation of a ban on public smoking. But, since the cigarette tax contributes to national economy, the given process requires particular time. He also underlined that tobacco use has been a part of culture, so it is not so easy to quit this habit. The government is doing its work in this field, but not so efficiently as desired.

At present there are many NGOs devoted to help people suffering from AIDS or those struggling with water pollution, but there are few organizations that are aimed to help people quit. “It requires big efforts to confront the country's smoking habit, especially when this habit produces huge profits for the government,” said Mr. Ji.