2010 Asian Games starts today November 12th - Guangzhou, China - theme of the games this time, the Games smoke-free..

November 12, 2010 -

The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, are scheduled to take place in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to November 27, 2010. Guangzhou is the second city in China to host the Games after Beijing in 1990.

Directly related news brief: Guangzhou, China - non-smoking Asian Games - can it happen??

A local smoking-control law came into effect Wednesday (September 1) in Guangzhou, the capital of South China Guangdong Province. The law covers all of Guangzhou City. There, smoking in most public places, like offices, conference rooms, halls and elevators, is strictly prohibited.

Places of business larger than 150 square metres or having more than 75 seats may designate an area for smokers. Those who break the law will be fined 50 yuan (about 7.35 US dollars) and businesses not meeting their obligations will be fined up to 30,000 yuan.

Besides Guangzhou, a half of year earlier on March 1, Shanghai also began implementing a regulation to ban smoking in 12 types of public places in an effort to have a smoke-free World Expo.

Shanghai declined a 200-million-yuan sponsorship deal for the 2010 World Expo from a tobacco company in July 2009.

One of the world's largest tobacco producing and consuming nations, China manufactures about 100 billion packets of cigarettes each year. It has a smoking population of 350 million, about one third of the world's total smoking population.

References: No Smoking' law comes into effect in Guangzhou, Source: Xinhua, 9/2/2010; 16th Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou - China by arszwetta, 11/11/2010 - 46 images.