Women on the front line in battle against smoking

Nearly every day on the mainland women go to work in smoke-filled offices, exposed to the fumes of cigarettes smoked mainly by male colleagues. After work is over many go home to breathe secondhand smoke created by husbands or other members of their family.

China is known as the Smoking Dragon, but its addiction to tobacco is not shared between the sexes. According to the most recent national survey, 288 million men smoked regularly in 2010, compared with 13 million women.

Lately, however, women have been striking back. The State Council proposed last autumn the nation's toughest restrictions yet on indoor smoking and the marketing of tobacco. The announcement was a major victory for the tobacco-control movement, which includes several women who have been on the front lines for decades.

"This is a very important step," said Yang Gonghuan, an epidemiologist who has been documenting tobacco's toll on public health since the 1980s.

"It is very difficult to push for these kinds of changes on a national level. It has taken many, many years."

Although the mainland is known for its smog and other environmental problems, no public health issue poses more of a threat than tobacco. An estimated one million people die each year from lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases across the country.

The nation's anti-smoking movement includes many prominent men. Former NBA basketball player Yao Ming and other celebrities have lent their names to the cause. An activist named Li Enze filed a lawsuit in 2013 against the country's tobacco monopoly, alleging that it had fraudulently marketed a low-tar cigarette brand called Black Tiger.