Why is this economic news？Well，consider these numbers.China is said to have about 300 million smokers—nearly the entire population of the United States and making up one quarter of the global smokers.We bring up the U．S.for comparison because the Surgeon General coincidentally released a report last month that really caught our eye.Smoking，the report says，costs us Americans

　　289 billion a year—about four times as much as the U．S.federal budget for education combined.Twenty million Americans have died in the last 50 years as a result of smoking—more than the death numbers from all of our wars put together，of course.This year，nearly 500,000 Americans will die because of smoking.These numbers are just shocking.And in China，the numbers are much，much worse.

　　Well，the good news is that things are actually getting better—and the ban in China is another big step forward.According to the World Health Organization，from 2010,109 countries had national bans on smoking in hospitals；42 on smoking in restaurants and 35 on smoking in bars.Every year new countries join this list.India banned smoking in public places in 2008...so did France the following year.The result is a substantial decline in smoking rates.In 1980,41 percent of men around the world were smokers.In 2017，the number dropped to 31 percent.

　　At least some of the credit has to go to Michael Bloomberg，the former Mayor of New York.Remember when he first proposed a smoking ban in New York，back in 2002？Many people didn’t think his idea practical.But within a few years，dozens of major cities like Paris，Rome，London followed suit.Now China is moving in this direction.

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