Chinese companies—from tech giants to media to automakers—joined the World Health Organization today in a commitment to offer 100% smoke-free workplaces across China, the world’s largest tobacco consumer.
The WHO campaign, launched at an event in Beijing today together with WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, invites businesses to transform their companies by joining “My Right Your Responsibility.” The campaign intends to stamp out smoking in workplaces across China and protect employees from the harmful effects of tobacco. China is home to more than 300 million smokers.
Companies joining the campaign today include familiar household names of China’s biggest and most well-known brands: computer and tech giant Baidu, travel company Ctrip.com, shared workspace provider Ucommune, job-seeking website Zhaopin, rail company Beijing MTR, People’s Daily Online, Chongqing-based carmaker Changan Automobile, and one of the influential Aiyou Foundation.
These companies, plus scores of others in China and across the region, signed a pledge with the WHO and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide 100% smoke-free workplaces all their employees. Almost sixty companies representing four countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region and representing more than 410,000 employees joined the WHO in a firm commitment to put long-term health above short-term profits.
“China has the largest smoking population in the world, its tobacco control process has a great influence on the whole world. And the efforts and support from the business leaders could bring significant power to further tobacco control,” said Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director-General of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Li Xinhua.
Tobacco kills 7 million people around the world each year, including 890,000 non-smokers who are exposed to tobacco smoke. In China alone, tobacco kills 1 million people annually. More than 700 million people are exposed to secondhand smoke every day, resulting in 100,000 deaths every year.
While a few cities have already passed laws banning all indoor smoking in public spaces and workplaces, more action is needed. China needs a national smoke-free law to protect all citizens from the deathly exposure to secondhand smoke, not just those in selected cities. A complete nationwide ban on smoking in Chinese offices alone would reduce the prevalence of smoking among Chinese men by 13 million and avert 6 million premature deaths over a 50-year period, according to a WHO report released last year(http://www.wpro.who.int/china/publications/2017-tobacco-report-china/en).
“The private sector has a critical role to play in protecting public health – leading by example, and being a front-runner can help save many more lives in the long-run. What is significant, what demonstrates their leadership, is that these companies didn’t wait but rather implemented a smoke-free policy even when no such law currently exists that mandates it,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Smoke-free environments help denormalise the act of smoking and provides an environment conducive for smokers to kick the habit,” he said.
Smoking in the workplace also raises operational costs and reduces productivity by adversely affecting the health of workers. Making workplaces completely smoke-free is an effective way to protect the health of employees and improve the bottom line. That is why, in some countries, the private sector is already taking the initiative to implement smoke-free workplace policies.
Forward-thinking businesses and their leaders see the value of safeguarding their workers against tobacco’s harm. Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and one of China’s strongest tobacco-control champions, is serving as a model for other participants in the WHO’s smoke-free campaign, having led the charge to create smoke-free offices for his company in 2011.
“When you light a cigarette, your action already hurts many people’s health. Health is everyone’s right. and protecting employee’s health is every entrepreneur’s responsibility,” said Robin Li.
Other corporate leaders, such as Aiyou Foundation’s Bin Wang, Zhaopin’s Evan Sheng Guo, Ctrip’s Jie Sun, People Daily’s Zhenzhen Ye, Ucommune’s Daqing Mao, and MTR Corporation’s Wilson Shao, are among the entrepreneurs who are pledging to protect public health, supporting the WHO’s smoke-free campaign.
The “My Right Your Responsibility” campaign in China is part of a broader campaign launched by the WHO for the Western Pacific Region called Smoke-free Revolution, which calls on businesses to pledge their smoke-free workplace commitments through a campaign website (www.revolutionsmokefree.org). The website provides information on implementation, encouragement and collaboration.
“Today marks an important day for the tobacco control community. WHO is issuing this challenge and would like to encourage more and more companies from within and outside China to join in this cause to protect the rights and health of employees in all workplaces,” said Dr Tedros.