Zhang Yang

nicolezyyy@163.com

A WOMAN was fined 50 yuan (US$7.36) for smoking in the stairwell in a Luohu office building that was raided by law enforcers yesterday morning during spot checks joined by reporters and volunteers from the Shenzhen Tobacco Control Association, according to a press release from the city’s health and family planning commission.

The woman was smoking in the stairwell on the 40th floor of the International Trade Commercial Building in Luohu District when she was found by law enforcers. She was emotional upon being caught smoking by the reporters’ cameras, but she didn’t resist when the law enforcers asked her to pay the 50-yuan penalty.

The law enforcers also gave a warning to a company on the 40th floor because ashtrays were placed in the company’s meeting room and there weren’t any “No Smoking” signs inside the office.

Three men who were found smoking in the stairwell on the 25th floor ran away before the law enforcers could catch them. Lots of cigarette butts were found littered between the 21st and 25th floor of the building’s stairwell.

A staffer with the building’s property management company, surnamed Dou, said that it’s still common to see people smoking in office building stairwells. He said that the company had put “No Smoking” signs up in the building’s stairwells before, but the signs were always torn down by smokers.

According to Dou, some companies in the building have enforced the smoking ban pretty well by charging employees who smoke indoors a 200-yuan penalty, which has efficiently reduced smoking-ban violations in the building.

Shenzhen’s smoking ban, said to be the harshest of its kind in China, stipulates fines between 50 and 500 yuan for individual violators and up to 30,000 yuan for operators of nonsmoking venues that fail to comply with the ban, which was extended to all indoor areas Jan. 1 this year.

Two monthlong operations were launched by the authorities in March and May to conduct spot checks at leisure venues and restaurants citywide to punish those who violated the smoking ban. The anti-smoking raid yesterday marked the beginning of a third operation that will run throughout the month, checking for smoking-ban violations in office buildings, medical institutions, schools and border checkpoints across the city.