Top World Health Organization (WHO) experts have predicted that 1 billion people will die of tobacco-related diseases this century unless governments in rich and poor countries alike get serious about banning smoking.

Douglas Bettcher, head of the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, said at the seven-day Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that tobacco killed 5.4 million people per year, and with smoking rates in many developing countries on the rise, particularly among teenagers, that annual death toll would rise to 8.3 million within the next 20 years.

According to WHO estimates, if the rate of smoking remains unchanged, the death toll is likely to climb to 2.2 million a year by 2020, with cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases the big killers.

"If all the governments prevent the epidemic, by 2050 we can save 200 million lives," said Bettcher.

China has more than 350 million smokers and nearly 1 million die from smoking-related diseases each year, according to the Ministry of Health. About 540 million Chinese suffer the effects of secondhand smoke and more than 100,000 die annually from diseases caused by passive smoking, said the ministry's 2007 report on China's smoking control.

According to Xu Guihua, Deputy Director of the Chinese Association on Smoking Control, the smoking rate is commonly in "reverse ratio" to the education level of social groups. Smoking is much more prevalent among poor people in China. However, interestingly, the smoking rate among male doctors is very high compared to other countries, about 60 percent. A survey among 186 actors, actresses and other performers, as well as sports stars, conducted by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (CMDA) in Beijing, Shanghai and other 20 Chinese cities indicates that the pressure of competition pushes Chinese entertainers and sports stars into excessive smoking. Research in Shanghai showed that in families where one partner smokes, the risk of the child contracting cancer is 50 percent higher than for one whose parents don't smoke, a figure the WHO calls "substantial".

China joined the international fight against tobacco consumption when it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2003. The convention states that China must undertake steps to implement effective legislative or administrative measures to prevent people from smoking in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and other places, where appropriate. The State Council, China's cabinet, made a draft revision of China's environmental sanitation regulations, issued in June. It says areas of high pedestrian density should be no-smoking areas and should be equipped with special ventilation facilities, and smoking will be banned in taxis, buses, air-conditioned trains, planes and waiting rooms.

According to the draft revision, business operators must have visible prohibition signs in no-smoking areas. The revised regulation expands its scope to cover all public places with a special focus on hotels, public toilets, swimming pools, beauty parlors and waiting rooms. Large and medium-sized catering ventures should also advocate a smoking ban and make at least 75 percent of their floor space smoke-free.

As the host of the 2008 summer Olympics, Beijing has been waging campaigns for a "smoke-free Games". In April, municipal government departments, including the bureaus of health and commerce, issued a circular asking all catering businesses to implement tobacco controls. By June next year, smoking bans should be enforced in all hotels that provide services for athletes and other workers of the Olympic Games, all competition venues and restaurants in Olympic Village, Zhang Jianshu, a spokesman for Beijing's Health Bureau, said. The city is now attempting to create smoke-free hospitals and encourage medical staff to quit smoking. With the addition of Fuxing, Zhongguancun and Beijing No. 6 hospitals, the number of city hospitals with regular quit-smoking outpatient services has risen to six.

Hong Kong began to enforce its anti-smoking law from January 1 this year. According to the law, smoke-free places include schools, the majority of parks, pubs and teahouses, leaving countable venues available for smoking. Holding a cigarette under a no-smoking sign is now a punishable offence. When it was passed, the law was met with some resistance and doubt, especially from owners of dining halls and pubs who worried that their customers would no longer come to eat and drink if they weren’t allowed to smoke.