This OP sounds more like they are giving the police the go ahead to start standing on street waiting for foreigners to pass with a smoke in their hand. Then use that to collect a larger fine from them. The laws they have for where you can smoke are not intended to reduce a passerby of 2nd hand smoke. They are used to collect large fines for those who are ignorant of the places you are not allowed to smoke to collect money which is usually done in bribes. I sat one day watching near Soi Nana on Sukhumvit. The police never once stopped a Thai but could easily be seen chasing down a foreigner then taking him to his police box and money changing hands. 

5 hours ago, maddox41 said:

But you will walk over a klong and smell sewage and sit at a road side Cafe and get poisoned by exhaust fumes but that's OK wtf 

Gotta start somewhere. 🙂

As long as they don’t ban the massage girls from smoking,it’s alright with me.

I wasn't going to comment on this ridiculous "crackdown" because why bother? It's too little too late, it won't be enforced in any way whatsoever, and it ignores the real smoke problem that will without a doubt return to northern Thailand again next spring.

2 hours ago, cdulaney said:

Will, what do the farmers do with the small leaves that are chopped up and blown back onto the farm when using Harvesters to cut and load the Cane? Does Nong Bua Daeng use Harvesters or do the farms have too many rocks on the farm for Harvester use?

 

All by hand. Day labourers are B250/ plus three meals or paid per bundle

 

Thought you weren't talking to me?

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

I CBA as well so  I'll take your word for it 

Lets just  hope that money doesn't get wasted and  goes towards keeping our illegals in the comfort that they expect and have become accustomed to

 

 

0.12% of GDP

24 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

All by hand. Day labourers are B250/ plus three meals or paid per bundle

 

Thought you weren't talking to me?

Will, I had one of those, Oh By The Way Moments, so I was just curious per my comment. The day rate is really cheap as compared to Kamphaeng Phet. While I am here, you being in Thailand for 30 years makes me curious, How Old are You? Have a Safe weekend with the wife and enjoy the remaining years in Thailand.

7 hours ago, maddox41 said:

Oh again 10 yrs later  they tried to do it in 2015  lasted 1 month. 

They just are so thick  love to blame but ignore the real culprit 

50 yr old Mitsubishi Buses 

DMAX Pickups 

Trucks 

The pollution from Southern China 

Burning their rubbage on the outskirts. 

Industry 

But oh no it the million smokers.  Beggars believe. 

This started long before then. late 90's  they banned tobacco advertising and smoking in public.

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Not a bad idea, if it is enforced. I think most smokers have no idea how obnoxious their second hand smoke really is. 

 

And it is the filthiest of habits. Anything to discourage it is a good thing. 

We all have our filthy habits, some more filthy than others.

How many packs of cigarettes are this?

 

10 hours ago, Retfed50 said:

A 20 man enforcement team to cover all of Bagkok? That should work!

 

This sounds like a new version of that silliness where enforcement people would follow you around Bkk waiting for you to toss your cigarette butt and then present you with an on-the-spot fine.  

My first time in Pattaya, not long after my arrival, I witnessed a tiff between a punter and a working gal, with her shouting "You farang!  Farang hap to pay!"  I soon learned those last four words can be considered country's national motto, they should put it on the coins.

 

12 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Often. Usually I will avoid sitting anywhere near smokers. Especially while eating. Yuk! 

I used to be a smoker, but I gave up 20 years ago. I don't mind if someone smokes next to me, but I do mind vaping.

As Thailand ran a tobacco monopoly for years and renamed it the Tobacco Authority of Thailand (TAOT) in 2018, to carry on poisoning people, the governor is in a strange position, wanting to lower poisoning while the government continues to want to poison people.

During the months when heavy smoke and haze coming from the North even creates a health hazard when leaving the house (!), I will certainly feel relieved to be protected from "secondhand cigarette smoke" thanks to this initiative. 

On 10/10/2025 at 7:16 PM, Trippy said:

If only there was a safer alternative to smoking tobacco. Something that still gave the pleasure without the toxic second hand smoke, maybe exhaling just water vapor instead, then Thailand could ban it so the tobacco monopoly can make the most money possible.  555

I gotta say I cannot see where the pleasure in smoking is .When we were about 10 years old my mate and I got a packet of cigarettes out of my mothers shop and tried smoking.I can tell you it was NOT pleasurable as we both coughed our lungs out and thought we were gonna die.Needless to say that we never took it up as habit.

Vehicles with no pollution controls, causing enough air pollution to be the equivalent of smoking 3 cigarettes a day, is just fine.  But heaven forbid someone gets a whiff of second hand tobacco.

It is to strain at a gnat and swallow camel.

 

Foreigners will be the main money target.

On 10/10/2025 at 5:50 PM, ikke1959 said:

Yes refuse the vaping to be legal and let million cars and motorcycles drive with many of them blacksmoke.. the few cigarettes will make the difference

Most bars don't enforce the no smoking inside rules and have never done so 

Is This from the Babylon Bee?

On 10/10/2025 at 4:16 PM, Trippy said:

If only there was a safer alternative to smoking tobacco. Something that still gave the pleasure without the toxic second hand smoke, maybe exhaling just water vapor instead, then Thailand could ban it so the tobacco monopoly can make the most money possible.  555

The greatest scam of all times, getting people to experience withdrawal pain from using a product that generates so much money, that any lie is acceptable to keep this going.

So the scam is getting users hooking on a very addictive drug, so addictive that it will cause pain when the drug ceases its effect on the body.

But no fear, there is a way to reduce this withdrawal pain, just pay more money to inhale more of it to eliminate the pain. But this absence of pain, that I have all the time as a non-smoker, will last only for a short while. So a bit more inhaling, and then this absence of pain for a while is viewed as 'pleasure' but the addicted people. I hear that heroin will have similar effect, stronger as it certainly is.. 

 

This is why this drug is for kids, as they re the only people who can fall for this scam, because of their immaturity and lack of experience. We should check how many people already in their 30's, or even their 20's, start smoking. Then the reason for smoking would be described using words not so flattering for these addicted people...

 

So I would think that the alternative to smoking is to breathe just regular air, already polluted, but at least not willfully polluted but adding a known poison.

And the alternative to the gruesome pictures on cigarette packs, that do nothing to reduce the number so smokers, how about trying to tell the truth on these packages. "Product for people at an early stage of brain development'', or some variation using even less of a euphemistic wording, which would have a chance of success, in this country where "saving face" is a cultural trait....

 

12 hours ago, cdulaney said:

Will, I had one of those, Oh By The Way Moments, so I was just curious per my comment. The day rate is really cheap as compared to Kamphaeng Phet. While I am here, you being in Thailand for 30 years makes me curious, How Old are You? Have a Safe weekend with the wife and enjoy the remaining years in Thailand.

 

Hi,

 

70, but the girls on soi 6 swear I only look 50.....🤭

 

 You also...........Safe weekend with the wife and enjoy the remaining years in Thailand.

20 hours ago, FlorC said:

Hehe , leave DMAX out of it.

My 18 years old doesn't have black smoke coming out.

Well, you likely change the oil occasionally, and have the vehicle maintained. There's nothing worse than a diesel vehicle that hasn't been maintained properly. 

19 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

Not sure what you're trying to say, I assume you are a smoker, and don't give a rat's about others around you, please correct me if wrong.

He is obviously suggesting that vaping nicotine is way way less obnoxious and irritating to others than firing up a cigarette with smoke that lingers and drifts around.  The reality is most smokers are totally addicted to nicotine and vaping is for sure less smell and "smoke" .  Nicotine addicts are gonna get their nicotine one way or the other.

 

I don't care for either but if the choice is sitting somewhere that somebody is smoking or someone who is vaping there is little to no doubt that vaping is less offensive.

 

Our condo pool has all sorts of no smoking signs all over with 5000 baht "fines".  And of course there are always a few who still fire up their stinky cigs.  Fortunately most nicotine addicts seem to vape and for sure that is better than smelling the smoke.

1 hour ago, pomchop said:

He is obviously suggesting that vaping nicotine is way way less obnoxious and irritating to others than firing up a cigarette with smoke that lingers and drifts around.  The reality is most smokers are totally addicted to nicotine and vaping is for sure less smell and "smoke" .  Nicotine addicts are gonna get their nicotine one way or the other.

 

I don't care for either but if the choice is sitting somewhere that somebody is smoking or someone who is vaping there is little to no doubt that vaping is less offensive.

 

Our condo pool has all sorts of no smoking signs all over with 5000 baht "fines".  And of course there are always a few who still fire up their stinky cigs.  Fortunately most nicotine addicts seem to vape and for sure that is better than smelling the smoke.

Ironically many vape to give up smoking, valing also damaged the lungs, have high levels of chemicals...including, in many cases, high levels of nicotine, the drug that causes cigarette addiction.,go figure

23 hours ago, Spock said:

When were you last bothered by second hand cigarette smoke? Do tell. I'd have thought Thailand to have rather strict smoking rules.

Just about every day  ..  even when entering Market Village Mall.   there is always a group of people sitting on the benches smoking away inside the parking garage just before any entrance... 

2 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

Ironically many vape to give up smoking, valing also damaged the lungs, have high levels of chemicals...including, in many cases, high levels of nicotine, the drug that causes cigarette addiction.,go figure

  One of the dumbest things i ever did was to get addicted to cigs as a teen.  One of the smartest things I ever did was when I finally once and for all gave them up.  It is a horrible addictive, nasty, expensive habit that has ruined many lives.

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Well, you likely change the oil occasionally, and have the vehicle maintained. There's nothing worse than a diesel vehicle that hasn't been maintained properly. 

Change the Air Filter and the excess smoke will go away. It will make it easier to pass the test for your truck sticker every year. LOL

 

1 hour ago, cdulaney said:

Change the Air Filter and the excess smoke will go away. It will make it easier to pass the test for your truck sticker every year. LOL

 

How do you mean pass the test for your truck every year?? Last year I had to check my car too and the person who was first fumed a lot of blacksmoke, but he was approved without doing anything... not even was he told to change the filter... So if the check ups are of this quality no wonder the air pollution and the black smoke fuming cars can't be controlled... Today I cam back from Bangkok and I have seen at least 15 cars with a lot of blacksmoke....

Apart from the burning season in CNX and other areas,many people smoke in thailand include farangs saying this will not make it better.Smoking will continue