The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Beijing

Chinese health officials view the Beijing Olympics as a golden opportunity to step up the battle against smoking, a habit that kills about a million people in China every year.

Despite ongoing attempts to catch up with much of the developed world, where tobacco use in public places is banned or increasingly frowned upon, in China the waft of cigarette smoke remains an ever-present fact of life.

China boasts up to 360 million smokers, 26 percent of its population and a third of the global total, and the nation is dependent on the tobacco industry for huge tax revenues.

Offering a cigarette remains an ice-breaker at formal and informal social and business occasions and, until recently, refusing to take up such an offer was considered impolite.

Even top Chinese athletes such as Liu Xiang, world and Olympic champion in the 110m high hurdles, advertises for Chinese tobacco company Baishan, while some football and basketball professionals still enjoy a smoke at half-time.

But despite these factors the tide shows signs of turning, with people such as communications expert Ren Mengshan openly advocating the Olympics as "a good platform for the government to promote non-smoking and the benefits of good health."

Besides declaring the Beijing Olympics "smoke-free," organisers have also banned tobacco from public places where athletes and Olympic officials are likely to meet during the August Games.

The capital has further mandated that 70 percent of all hotel rooms be non-smoking and since October last year, has banned taxi drivers from smoking in their cars.

"We support and congratulatet the authorities here in Beijing for taking these very important steps," said Hans Troedsson, the China-based representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"It is very important that the Olympics have been declared smoke-free and a tobacco-free Olympics. It is sending a very important message not only here in China but to the rest of the world."

Last year, the WHO said the death toll from diseases associated with tobacco use was about one million a year in China, a figure that is expected to increase to 2.2 million per year by 2020 if smoking rates remain unchanged.