Beijing Tobacco Control Association has urged Internet giant Tencent to remove smoking emojis from its popular software after microblogging site Sina Weibo first snuffed out the cigarette carrying symbol.

在新浪微博中率先将“吸烟”表情撤除后，北京市控制吸烟协会呼吁科技巨头腾讯公司，将吸烟表情包从其流行的软件中删除。

At the suggestion of users, Weibo withdrew the image of a smiling, cool smoker with dark glasses from its emoji package on both the PC and mobile-version of Weibo.

在用户的建议下，新浪微博从其PC端和手机端的表情包中删除了一个微笑的、酷酷的吸烟表情。

Zhang Jianshu, director of Beijing Tobacco Control Association, said smoking is anything but cool today and an image depicting¹ smoking that way is particularly improper².

北京市控制吸烟协会会长张建枢称，吸烟根本就不酷，而用一张图片那样来描述吸烟，是极不合适的。

The association appreciated Weibo's decision to delete the emoji and this showed a sense of social responsibility as well as care for user health, said Zhang, adding that smoking is blamed for many health problems and can lower life quality.

该协会赞扬了新浪微博将该表情删掉的决定，张建枢称这是社会责任感的一种体现，也是对用户健康的关心。他还表示，吸烟会导致许多健康问题，降低生活质量。

The association also called on Tencent, based in southern Shenzhen City, to make similar moves on social networking app WeChat and instant messaging software QQ.

该协会也呼吁总部位于中国南方深圳的腾讯公司，在其社交软件微信和即时通讯软件QQ上，采取类似行动。

Studies show two- thirds of male youth in China smoke, most starting before 20 years old. As the majority of social media users are young, the inclusion of a smoking emoji can be a bad influence.

研究表明，目前中国有三分之二的男性青年吸烟，其中绝大部分人是在20岁之前就开始的。由于社交媒体的主要用户为年轻人，所以包含吸烟表情可能会带来恶劣的影响。