May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

BEIJING: Beijing introduced sweeping new rules against smoking in public places on Thursday in an effort to create a “smoke-free Olympics,” state press said. The new rules mean hotels and restaurants will for the first time have to offer smoke-free facilities in the Chinese capital, where dining venues are often filled with an acrid haze.

All public venues including fitness centres, offices, meeting rooms, toilets, and lifts in buildings must be completely smoke-free from Thursday, state news agency Xinhua said.

Authorities in the Chinese capital have hired 100,000 inspectors to enforce the ban, the news agency said.

People caught flouting the rules will be fined 10 yuan ($1.4), and businesses face fines of up to 5,000 yuan, Xinhua said.

Olympic venues and facilities for the 10,500 competitors expected here for the August 8-24 Games are already under stringent smoking bans. China has about 350 million smokers, about a quarter of its population and one-third of the world’s smokers, according to official statistics. About one million people die of smoking-related diseases each year in China, according to the World Health Organisation.—AFP