The law that bans smoking in indoor public places in China took effect on Sunday. However, analysts already are predicting that the vaguely defined rules will not have a significant effect on the country’s extremely high tobacco consumption.

In a survey conducted by the Chinese Government, smoking is associated to more than a million deaths in China every year. It is by far the greatest health threat the country is battling with today. At present, around 30 million people in China smoke, and that is roughly 300 million people.

Towards the end of March, the Health Ministry released the amended guidelines of their anti-smoking law. The smoking ban expanded the places where people are not allowed to smoke. The ban now covers places like restaurants and hotels.

The state media, however, pointed out that possibility that the smoking ban will not render effective. Many experts say that there is a great chance that people and store owners will not honor the said smoking ban because the punishments for violators were not clearly stated.

China’s National Office of Tobacco director, Dr. Yang Gonghuan, said that she acknowledges the flaws in the smoking ban but she remains hopeful that people of China will become more aware of the dangers of smoking.

China has missed the January 9, 2011 WHO set deadline to ban tobacco smoking in public places. Many reports surfaced that the delay may be caused by the fact that the government raises high revenue from the government-owned tobacco industry.