Society

Students will no longer see smoking teachers

By Song Wei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-14 10:31

Teachers in primary and middle schools are banned from smoking in front of students, in order to set a good example on a campaign to build smoking-free campus, a recent regulation released by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health states, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

Teachers are also not allowed to take or offer cigarettes from each other. Smokers, including visitors to the school, can only smoke in the smoking area on campus.

Statistics from the Health Ministry show that there are 350 million smokers in the country, and more than one million deaths are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke every year. They also show that 540 million are suffering from secondhand smoke, with 180 million of them younger than 15 years old.