The State Council of China announced plans yesterday to create a widespread smoking ban as well as ban tobacco advertising, tobacco use in movies and television and other measures to curb smoking. The current draft of the proposal would ban smoking in all indoor places as well as a number of outdoor venues, as well as ban vending machine sales of cigarettes along with limiting tobacco companies’ sponsorship of events and promotional activities. The move comes as a way to reduce the cost of tobacco-related health conditions, which the World Health Organization says will cost the country $500 billion dollars in a ten-year period ending in 2015. Before being decided, the proposal will be subject to a period of public comment. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reports that the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, has been looking at ways to limit tobacco advertising, while Beijing has passed anti-smoking laws but has not been strict in enforcing them. China has an estimated population of 1.35 billion people, of which approximately 300 million are smokers.
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