Tobacco Use Declines on Mainland

6 | Friday, May 31, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA Social organizations Making ends meet Jiangxi bans to face random audit phones in university By WANG KEJU [email protected] 2,301 classrooms The Ministry of Civil Affairs social organizations registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, ordered random audits of 250 By ZOU SHUO with 19 foreign chambers of social organizations to step up [email protected] commerce. oversight and strengthen the orderly development of social More universities in China organizations across the country, inspect whether there are wrong have started to implement a ban according to a statement on doers that misappropriate assets on electronic devices in class — Tuesday. or profit through unreasonable including cellphones and tablets Most of the groups were Chi expenses for activities and man — to ensure students can con nese associations, and included agement. centrate on learning. 202 social groups, 23 founda Deng Guosheng, a professor of Jiangxi province recently took tions and 25 social service orga the School of Public Policy and the initiative to issue the first nizations. Management at Tsinghua Uni provincial ban on college stu Among them were two foreign versity, said that the audit was dents from taking electronic chambers of commerce — the just routine work. devices into classes. American Chamber of Com A regulation released in 2017 The final section of the 2kilometer Chishuihe Bridge located between Luzhou in Sichuan province and The Jiangxi Education Bureau merce in China and the Austra noted that no less than 10 per Zunyi in Guizhou province is put in place on Thursday. Left: People watch the construction of the issued a guideline forbidding lian China Chamber of cent of the social organizations Chishuihe Bridge near the site. Right: The last section of steel girder is hoisted in place by workers. college students in the province Commerce — as well as four registered at the ministry should PHOTOS BY HE HAIYANG / FOR CHINA DAILY from using electronic devices in international associations, be randomly audited each year. class, unless they are used for including APEC Port Services According to chinanpo.gov.cn, educational purposes. Network and the International where the public can check regis Other universities have used WWII Museum Association. tration information of social bags to collect students’ cell The organizations will be organizations, there are 2,301 phones before classes and if they assessed in aspects such as annu social organizations registered at refuse to turn their cellphone in, al performance reports, financial the ministry, with 19 foreign Survey: Tobacco use they will get a lower score on audit reports, operational effec chambers of commerce. exams. tiveness and efficiency, and com The ministry has hired 10 The School of Physics at Hua pliance with laws, regulations accounting firms to conduct the zhong University of Science and and policies. audit, which is expected to last Technology in Wuhan, Hubei The ministry, for example, will until August. province, started a cellphone declines on mainland ban in 2014. Students who play with cellphones in class must But China CDC says more efforts still areas in China such regulations are hand them in to teachers for a absent,” he said. “The prevalence of month, according to the school’s needed to hit nation’s reduction target tobacco has caused serious health regulation. consequences to the public, includ By WANG XIAODONG tect people’s health, despite the ing the rising incidence of lung can [email protected] progress made. cers in China,” said Zhi, who is also a “To achieve the government tar professor specializing in lung dis Even if mobile Smoking has been declining on get of bringing down the percentage eases at Xuanwu Hospital, Capital the Chinese mainland, but more of adult smokers to 20 percent by Medical University, in Beijing. phones are banned efforts are needed for effective 2030, we have a lot of work to do,” he In the capital, the percentage of ... The main factor tobacco control, according to a sur said. smokers decreased to 22.3 percent vey released on Thursday. The biggest obstacle to tobacco from 23.4 percent in 2014 — a in retaining Last year, 26.6 percent of the pop control in China is the powerful decrease of 200,000 smokers over students’ attention ulation 15 years old or above across tobacco industry, which is one of the the past five years — Beijing Munici the mainland were smokers, accord biggest tax contributors to the gov pal Health Commission said on is the quality of ing to the survey, which was con ernment, he said. Thursday. teaching.” ducted by the Chinese Center for Despite an increasing number of Following the adoption of a Disease Control and Prevention cities having local regulations on revised tobacco control regulation Xiong Bingqi, vicepresident of the 21st Century Education between July and December. tobacco control, national legisla in June, 2015, which bans smoking Research Institute Classified domestic trash is transported to the garbage transfer A similar survey conducted by tion is still lacking, due to causes in all indoor public spaces and station for disposal in Beijing. WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY China CDC in 2014 and 2015 showed including influence from the indus workplaces, legal violations involv Beijing Geely University 27.7 percent of the group smoked. try, he said. ing smoking in public places such as issued a similar ban in March Despite a general decline, great “Only a few big cities, such as Bei hospitals and restaurants in Beijing last year, with a team organized difficulties still exist for China to jing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have have significantly decreased, Gao by school administrators bring down the percentage of smok strict tobacco control regulations Xiaojun, spokesman of the commis inspecting classes daily to catch Mandatory sorting of ers to 20 percent by 2030, China and law enforcement, but in most sion, said at a news conference. students who play with cell CDC said in a statement. phones, said Huo Weidong, The survey, released ahead of president of the university. garbage in capital aims World No Tobacco Day, which falls Students who play with cell on Friday, showed increasing public phones during class will be criti support for tobacco control. More cized, their names published on to change people’s habits than 90 percent of those surveyed different platforms, and their said they support a total ban on parents invited to the school, he tobacco in the workplace, and more said. By XIN WEN “Mandatory trash sorting is thus than 95 percent said they support The school has not caught any [email protected] necessary for people, and revising banning smoking in hospitals, mid students playing with their cell the rules is also urgent in order to dle and primary schools and public phones for 55 consecutive days, Beijing will implement manda specify that garbage classification transportation. Nearly 80 percent he said. tory trash sorting rules in public is a duty for waste producers,” she said they hope to see a ban on tobac Feng Jianguo, a doctoral can spaces such as schools, hospitals said. co in restaurants. didate at Tongji University in and business areas, in a move to A survey conducted by the The survey showed adult smokers Shanghai, said banning cell further encourage citizens to par standing committee of the munici generally lack the willingness to phones does have its advantages ticipate in garbage classification, a pal people’s congress in April quit, with only 16 percent planning as many college students have senior city official said on Wednes showed that only 20 percent of to quit within the year. little selfcontrol. day. those sampled can accurately dis Zhi Xiuyi, vicepresident of the When they use cellphones to Resident credit accounts, card kitchen waste in trash bins. Chinese Association on Tobacco People make recycling bags to collect cigarette butts at a communi play games and chat with including how people sort their The survey was based on 3,071 Control, said China faces severe ty in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, on Wednesday. friends, it is hard for them to domestic trash in their daily people in 16 downtown and subur challenges in tobacco control to pro CAO JIANXIONG / FOR CHINA DAILY learn anything in class, he said, lives, are also set to be estab ban districts of Beijing who lived adding that if cellphones are lished so that some violations in the areas for more than half a properly used, they can also will be recorded in occupants’ year. become important study tools. accounts, Zhang Jiaming, deputy The survey showed that resi Xiong Bingqi, vicepresident mayor of Beijing, said in a report dents’ unwillingness to partici Former official pleads guilty to bribery of the 21st Century Education submitted to the Standing Com pate in garbage classification is Research Institute, said banning mittee of the Beijing Municipal due to a lack of trash sorting college students from taking People’s Congress on Wednesday. facilities in communities and the Wu Zhen, former deputy direct During the work, as well as trading power mobile phones into class is hard “We will set up a mechanism that irregular garbage transfer by or of the China Food and Drug period he served with money, the release said. to enforce, as many of them garbage trucks can refuse to trucks. Administration, pleaded guilty to as deputy direct According to CCDI, Wu, who need phones to help them study. transfer trash if it is not classi Hao also suggested establish taking bribes of more than 20 mil or of CFDA, Wu holds a Master’s degree, also held “Even if mobile phones are fied.” ing a reportreward mechanism lion yuan ($2.9 million) and abuse showed favorit the post of secretarygeneral of banned, if a teacher simply Realtime supervision of all on mixed garbage transport of power during a trial on Thurs ism to his friends Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commis reads from the textbooks, stu kinds of garbage in the city will activities and including trash day.

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