Tobacco.org

• 7 cities join in to kick killer butt 

QINGDAO: After several bans on smoking in public places in most Chinese cities went up in smoke, Shanghai and Luoyang have expressed a desire to educate parents of the dangers of puffing away in front of their kids.

Shanghai and Luoyang are among six cities, including Wuxi (Jiangsu), Changsha (Hubei), Ningbo (Zhejiang) and Tangshan (Hebei), which joined Qingdao in a campaign called "Tobacco Free Cities" launched in the coastal capital of Shandong province yesterday.

The five-year program, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will provide the cities with funds to implement anti-smoking policies. Most of the seven cities that have joined the campaign already have smoking bans in place, but "hope to tighten controls and raise awareness" about the harmful effects of smoking.

Li Aihong, an official with the Luoyang disease prevention and control center, said her research found that 80 percent of people in her city are "forced to inhale second-hand smoke in their own homes".

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