Something new?

[softball]

Hey Liz, you could lobby for a change in local smoking regs. Get teachers to smoke in class and you might be on to something...

The authorities in Gong'an county had told civil servants and teachers to smoke 230,000 packs of the locally-made Hubei brand each year.
Those who did not smoke enough or used brands from other provinces or overseas faced being fined or even fired.
But the government has now backtracked from the policy, after a report in a local newspaper generated criticism.
U-turn
A million people die from smoking-related diseases in China every year, but the local authorities were initially undeterred by the health risks.
"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," Chen Nianzu, a member of the cigarette market supervision team in Gong'an county, Hubei province, told the Global Times newspaper.
The paper said the measure was probably an attempt to shore up the Hubei brands against tough competition from cigarettes produced in neighbouring Hunan province.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/8033101.stm