New laws target people in Thailand who smoke at home

[nontabury]

21 hours ago, Eligius said:

This hypocritical incursion of government interference into EVERY aspect of people's lives is getting ridiculous.

I am a life-long non-smoker. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. But to start bossing people around in the privacy of their own homes is - well, there is a banned word for it, and it begins with the letter 'd' !

 

 

As another life long non- smokers, I have to completely agree with you.

Perhaps they are trying to copy the U.K where the Bureaucrats like to become involved and control every little aspects of people’s life. This I have noticed Since returning to live in the U.K 16 months ago, after 20 yrs in Thailand,

I see this intrusion into people’s everyday life, and that’s perhaps one of the reason people here seem to be so stressed out and miserable. One of the downsides to a Nanny state.

Edited June 22, 2019 by nontabury

[NoshowJones]

21 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

I would hope they will soon ban nose picking in public especially restaurants. They are definitely getting way too intrusive with the new internet laws, the tell on your neighbor policy, the act too primp and proper at temples or else, on the internet if you show cleavage, and then you can only guess to name what next will be coming out of their twisted little pea brains telling everyone what to do. What I do in my house is my own business and they can A,B,C,D,E,_,G off.

I cannot think of any of my smoker friends who smoke in their own house, when any of my wifes brothers come to the house they always smoke outside, never once inside the house.

[chilli42]

I like the spirit of the proposed law ... secondary smoke is dangerous to others ... therefore irresponsible to smoke around kids in adult care who are not in a position to protect themselves.  That said, it’s just one more toothless law like so many others.  It’s easy to fabricate laws, compliance and policing is a different matter.  Thailand has many big pressing issues that need to be addressed, smoking at home should not be on that list.

[transam]

Half the country sits around a charcoal thingy that they cook on......Will they ban those, way more harmful than a fag....

Well no they won't, nor will they seriously control diesel emissions..

[potless]

As a smoker myself, I reason that if I fill my lungs with tar then the PM25 particles wont be able to gain a foothold.????

Edited June 22, 2019 by potless

[holy cow cm]

9 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

I cannot think of any of my smoker friends who smoke in their own house, when any of my wifes brothers come to the house they always smoke outside, never once inside the house.

That is correct. Perhaps I should have said on my property as in my house the things I do are more private. 

Edited June 22, 2019 by holy cow cm

[Assurancetourix]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

The financial cost of treating people suffering from smoking related to diseases is about Bt220 billion annually, according to Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine.

 

However, tax revenue raised from cigarettes totals just Bt68.6 billion.

 

So, why not just stop selling cigarettes ?

[marquis22]

So whats the difference for families breathing in cigarette smoke as against burning off smoke especially up north? I reckon I have breathed in more smoke from burning off in a week than I have from cigarette smoke my entire life.  ????

Also I think it would be more feasible to control burning off than to catch people smoking at home. ????

It would take a fare few cigarettes to create the same amount of smog as CM/Lampang districts experience.

I'd rather sit inside with her..... ????

[oldies1]

I like to fart ... will this be prosecuted too ?

[potless]

2 minutes ago, oldies1 said:

I like to fart ... will this be prosecuted too ?

I believe theres something in the wind.

[Geoffggi]

Going to be very hard to prove.... after all many young Thai's do visit Thai bars where smoking is permitted therefore how do they intend to associate blame...???

[Ricebarnandrooms]

Climate changes calendar ???

I am sure April 1st has gone already. 

Perhaps not

[Mac98]

They throw around big numbers for the health care of smokers. Subtract from that the likely health care cost for when they would have died anyway, then figure in the vast savings of not paying old-age pensions for that supposed additional 18 years. I've been trying to get my older sister to give up her lifelong smoking habit. She's 94. Longest life span on the planet? Japan. Highest percentage of smokers? Japan. A quiet smoke eases stress, which doctors now say is the real killer to fear. 

[car720]

Arbitrary, to say the least, but then again since women have been ruling the world, whim is the norm.

[PEE TEE]

Ban Smoking altogether. Introduce vaping 95% safer than smoking and no secondary effects . .open vape shops and job done  . 

[ThaiBunny]

9 minutes ago, car720 said:

since women have been ruling the world, whim is the norm

The basis of my theory that God is a woman

[Bert got kinky]

1 hour ago, pennine said:

Quite. Many people still smoke with gay abandon in restaurants.

 

Not in Bangkok.

[Reigntax]

22 hours ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

I'm not a smoker.  I don't like cigarette smoke.  Seems to me, that Thailand is becoming more like America.  They are giving new meaning to the Nanny State.

Yes, but every home needs a smoking hot nanny !!

[meand]

1 hour ago, Bournville said:

Thailand government as absolutely gone off the deep end. While I've never been a smoker this nonsense law is just too much invasion as a nanny state idea. 

 

Thailand continues to battle the little issues while much BIGGER issues are just not important! Absolutely disgusting. 

The reason you think it is nonsense is cigarettes came out at a time when we did not understand them as well. The laws regarding them were then made accordingly. 

 

Now, we do understand them. For example, we understand that babies, who can be affected to a much greater extent than grown individuals, should not be exposed to this smoke. NO AMOUNT is safe (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/secondhand-smoke-consumer.pdf). 

 

We do understand the effects much better now, and the laws are changing. I believe smokers should feel lucky they got to "get away" with what they did for decades. It was not long ago a smoker could light up three feet from me in a restaurant! Unheard of now. And in another ten years it will be unheard of to light up in public parks etc. And rightfully so. The next step, and Thailand seems to be right on this and I applaud them, is homes. If you cannot control your own smoke, or pay for an apparatus that does, why should you be allowed to smoke and affect the health of others? Detached homes I feel smokers have a good argument for smoking inside, but things like condos should be 100% off limits fir smoking. 

Edited June 22, 2019 by meand

[holy cow cm]

47 minutes ago, oldies1 said:

I like to fart ... will this be prosecuted too ?

Maybe if you light it and the neighbors see. 

[Matzzon]

That´s all good.

[outsider]

If someone in my home has asthma, or some breathing difficulties, or if there are kids, the onus is ON ME to not smoke in the vicinity that might affect them. Even if I lit up, I am sure family members will tell me off for doing so. The government should really stop inserting their dirty stubby fingers into everything and let people - Thais or otherwise - live their own lives.

 

For the record, I don't smoke now, but I WAS a smoker, and I believe in being fair to BOTH smokers and non-smokers alike.

[khunPer]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

The financial cost of treating people suffering from smoking related to diseases is about Bt220 billion annually, according to Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine.

 

However, tax revenue raised from cigarettes totals just Bt68.6 billion.

That 220 billion baht annually might be extremely difficult to relate to tobacco only, as there are multiple other sources of air pollution, also also inside homes, that cause similar symptoms as tobacco.

 

In Western World candles, and the cozy firewood ovens or open fireplaces, equals tobacco fumes, or are worse.

 

In Thailand a 2012-study showed that smoke from joss sticks, that are often lit at Buddhist homes, cause smoke related diseases. In the study half of Thai women with lung cancer had never smoked, and they came from non smoking homes, but they regularly used joss sticks.

 

However raising the cigarette tax by 50 percent probably wouldn't harm...????

[sjaak327]

Utter nonsense. Good that I usually stay alone, or with someone who also smokes ????

 

Imagine your own children complaining about their parents smoking, with the utter ridiculous "second hand smoke" nonsense. In Bangkok people don't get astma from smoking, but from having to wade through the smog caused by cars busses and motos, Can we now complain and charge those people too ?

[madmen]

Great news ! Unbelievable the arrogance and carelessness of smokers who think its OK for toddlers to suck up second hand smoke

[phantomfiddler]

CCTVs are to be installed in EVERY bathroom in the country, and if any farang discards the used toilet paper into the head he shall be immediately deported ! If recorded smoking in the bathroom, the penalty is by firing squad.

Years ago Thailand was popular because it was so laid back. 

[legendcat]

Why don’t they start charging all these smokers in the bars? All these laws and no teeth to bite into them.

[Camelot]

Thais have a long tradition of ignoring laws they don't like. Banning the eating of street food at night snared two Korean tourists at a street stall but no Thais because they chased the police away. That was under a military government in 1972 and is probably still on the books. Drinking beer from teapots in public places on religious and some regular holidays is another example of how an unpopular law is circumvented. I suspect pressure from the WHO is largely to blame for this latest over-reaction to smoking at home. It was proposed at a meeting in Seoul a few years ago and then went quiet...

[malibukid]

clean up the air in the north.  shameful.

[sambum]

4 hours ago, essox essox said:

what about after food, this is when most smokers love to light up !!!

Correct! My apologies - most smokers do, but I found that the 2nd hardest to give  up - "the fag and a pint" was traditional in my youth!