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So far, 60 tobacco stores have put up such warning signs. Secretary General of the Beijing Starlight Institution, which is also the sponsor of the activity, Liu Wei says their aim is to have one thousand stores involved:
"So there will be a social acknowledgement that it's not right for youngsters to smoke, youngsters shouldn't accept tobacco, and smoking is harmful to health. So minors will gradually keep away from cigarettes. And even if he smokes occasionally, when someone reminds him of the harmfulness of tobacco, he will finally give up smoking."
Vice president of the Beijing Jinsong Vocational School Wu Shaojun expresses her approval of the activity. But she says what she is more concerned with is whether her students can really buy cigarette from these stores.
"If there isn't a strong social guarantee system and wide attention to the issue of minor's smoking, the problem won't be solved. So I think putting up the warning sign is a good thing. But I hope supervisory departments will strengthen administration, and the stores which have signs will adhere to the principle of keeping kids tobacco free."
So will the warning signs work? Will stores which have hung the placards keep their promise? And what attitudes do the stores which don't have placards have toward minors? A middle school student Liu Jingbin did a survey.
"At beginning, I thought the stores which put up warning signs wouldn't sell cigarettes to middle school students like me, especially when I wore the school uniform. However, I found that it was easier to buy cigarettes from these stores. They even didn't ask me how old I am. On the contrary, some which didn't put up such a warning sign asked me whether I have reached the age of 18. And after I explained that I was buying them for my parents, they sold them to me."
According to a survey conducted by the Medical Institute of Peking University, among middle school students of 13 to 15 years in Beijing, 32.5 percent of boys and 13 percent of girls have attempted to smoke. And the average age of their first cigarette is only 10.7. And surveys have found that nearly 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking before the age of 18 in China.
The "Law on Preventing Juvenile Delinquency" which was issued in 1999 stipulates that no one is allowed to sell tobacco to minors. That is to say, no matter whether the tobacco selling counters put up such a warning sign or not, they shouldn't be selling cigarettes to teenagers.
Then, why do cigarette stands continue to violate the regulation? Secretary General of the Beijing Starlight Institution Liu Wei says the main reason is that there are no consequences for breaking the tobacco law.
"Now, we have to promote keeping minors from smoking and not selling cigarettes to minors. The State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau has created some regulations in this regard. But so far, there haven't been any laws forbidding selling tobacco to minors, nor to stipulate what punishment the stores will have if they sell cigarettes to minors."
Since there isn't any functional departments which can supervise selling tobacco to youngsters, teenagers can easily buy cigarettes. There is an easy way for businessmen to identify whether the buyer is an adult or not, which is to ask the buyer to show his ID card. However since there isn't any punishment for selling cigarettes to youngsters, who would refuse the easy profits?
Therefore, in terms of preventing and controlling youngsters from smoking, the top priority is to improve laws and regulations and to arouse public awareness that smoking is especially harmful to teenagers and that teenage smoking is prohibited.
(CRI June 29, 2004)
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