Comparative perspectives and development planning : the anti-smoking legislation in Guangzhou

Abstract

The large proportion of smokers in China and the social consequences have had a damaging impact on public health as well as on the society. As a sub-national legislation, the Guangzhou anti-smoking legislations in Guangzhou play an important role in the legislative control in China since it is one of the most severe local tobacco control laws in China. Many legislative experts, public health professionals and even decision makers have great hope on this law. But the consequence of this law is disappointed. And this anti-smoking legislation has exposed a lot of problems.

This article introduces the current status of tobacco control legislation in Guangzhou; analyzes the effectiveness of Hong Kong and Canada's tobacco control law; identifies four areas (the weak effect of the anti-smoking law; inappropriate penalties; limited governmental capacity and uncertain political will and the lack of awareness) in the anti-smoking legislation in Guangzhou that are problematic. Finally, this project discusses what can we learn from other countries' legislative experiences, including making clear definitions of key terms in anti-smoking laws; change the way of penalty; increasing the regulation of tobacco packaging and increasing the governmental capacity, which aims at proposing some legislative options for a much more effective tobacco control movement in Guangzhou in the future.