Police Ready To Arrest Breakers Of Smoking Ban From Feb 10

[jfchandler]

I've heard it all before... All the smokers and business owners had the same tired old FALSE gripes some years ago when California in the U.S.A adopted the same law.

Now years later, everyone there is calm and fine with it... businesses do just as much business as before...and people who want to smoke take it outside to the patio or other places... And the rest of us non-smokers are not forced to breath other people's smoke. It worked there and it can work in Thailand.

To the poster above who compared the ills of drinking and smoking, get a clue... If someone wants to drink themselves under the table, it may harm them, but it doesn't directly harm everyone around them. But if you're a non-smoker in a crowded, stuffy pub with people all around blowing cigarette smoke, it surely harms you and everyone else breathing in the vicinity.

Based on what happened in Calif., non-smokers make a sacrifice in this too... In the past, I'd always TRY to sit outside at places to avoid being inside where people were smoking. But now with the new laws, it's generally safe for non-smokers to sit inside at places. But as a non-smoker you now take your chances sitting outside on patios and such, because those have become the refuge of smokers...

The bottom line is: Smoking is a nasty habit. If smokers want to slowly kill themselves, that's their choice. But they shouldn't be allowed to take everyone else with them.

[aprilsky]

I think it depends on smoker's moral. I'm 21, smoking for 7 years but I never smoked in the public (except the first 3 years, usually in school's toilet). Do you believe that? I don't think it looks so cool if someone sees me smoking, and it slowly kills him/her.

[britmaveric]

I dont think anyone is debating the idea of banning smoking/ill effects - we just are laffing about the claims of enforcing it. MIB have hard time enforcing the laws they have already for more serious matters, so its amusing once again when they come out with such BS.

Edited February 8, 2008 by britmaveric

[toret]

Taksin is back. No doubt about that.

[ulimewes]

The same story in germany since january 1st... and more and more countries following.

I'm a chain smoker since 35 years... medical check every year... I'm fine!

But the point is... I'm over 18 years old, vaccined and responsible of my decisions.

So why everywhere in the worlD they try to tell me what I have to do?

The governments on this planet are banning smoking everywhere... and cashing the tax on smoke products at the same time.

So... either you ban the possession and sale of nicotine... and alcohol for sure ( that's not working as the US showed us in the past) or you just leave us alone for a second.

I think I'll have a smoke...

Good night!

[sweetchariot]

Taksin is back. No doubt about that.

As your name suggests, you seem to be prone to shouting out the first thing that comes into your head.

As mentioned previously this is NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NEW GOVERNMENT.

The motion was actually passed I believe on December 28th, allowing 45 days before coming into force.

It makes me laugh all the armchair political analysts blaming everything and anything on the newly elected government. I suppose if you had a power cut tomorrow it would be the new government's fault?

I can quite honestly see the PPP rescinding such petty legislation just to wind up the Generals.

[mobs00]

The only way to enforce an existing law that was never enforced in the first place is to reissue it with something new added; and then to proceed and enforce the "NEW" law.

[lazeeboy]

its never going to happen here

[Nepal4me]

The same story in germany since january 1st... and more and more countries following.

I'm a chain smoker since 35 years... medical check every year... I'm fine!

But the point is... I'm over 18 years old, vaccined and responsible of my decisions.

So why everywhere in the worlD they try to tell me what I have to do?

The governments on this planet are banning smoking everywhere... and cashing the tax on smoke products at the same time.

So... either you ban the possession and sale of nicotine... and alcohol for sure ( that's not working as the US showed us in the past) or you just leave us alone for a second.

I think I'll have a smoke...

Good night!

You've been chain smoking for 35 years? You are not fine. I guarantee it.

You are incapable of performing basic cardiovascular tasks, your lungs are atrocious, you are in great danger of many cardiovascular diseases.

You may not care about yourself and I don't care about you either but smoking in public causes others to suffer diseases too and is unacceptable in today's world given what we know about the ravages smoking does to people.

So, to answer your question. Governments are telling you what to do because what you do causes lethal diseases to others. Even with your ESL English (not meant as a derogatory comment) you should be able to understand that.

You do make one valid point. Governments should spend a lot more of the cigarette tax revenues on prevention. However, they do spend a lot on smoking related diseases so they are not ahead in the end-game as you suggest (I think).

No idea what you're talking about (that's not working in the US).. prohibition???

I would advise you to not have that smoke.

Goodnight.

[SurfRider]

"i got fined only this week in phrom thong on tuesday for smoking outside a public park."

"thats one place i wont visit again"

Well then, I guess you would have to admit that the ban is working.

Once enough puffers do the same, us non-puffers will have at least one smoke-free park we can count on

[Thanh-BKK]

@jfchandler

I don't need to get "a clue" - i already have one. I nearly lost my mother to alcoholism, i have been attacked by drunks in Germany and in Thailand, and i was TWICE on the "receiving end" of accidents, both caused by drunk drivers (and both in Thailand). You don't need to tell me who is more dangerous to me - smokers or drinkers.

If i don't want to get exposed to second-hand smoke, i don't go to places where they smoke, finish. However i can't avoid drunks because EVERYWHERE they serve alcohol!

But it's the non-smokers who permanently FORCE their view on others under the pretext of "health concerns". It's sure healthy to drink yourself under the table while not being exposed to the oh-so-dangerous second-hand smoke. Get a life, peeps - stand five minutes (the average waiting time for the pedestrian light to turn green) at a busy intersection and you breathe an amount of particles and poisonous gases equivalent to two packs of cigarettes.

So when will they crack down on the internal combustion engine???

But try to drum logic into alcoholics.

Thanh

[Jayman]

I think this is all great news indeed. Now what we need is a telephone hotline number that we call call in to report these offending venues. Nothing bothers me more than when I am in a restaurant with my family and half the people are smoking like a 16 year old Korean. I have complained to the restaurant management but they couldn't care less. If I could then call in to report them and it was actually followed up by a 20,000thb fine then I think they would start removing the ash trays from the tables and stop the smokers from lighting up. Until they get fined, good luck getting them to comply. It is the responsibility of the establishment to enforce these rules. As we all know, the customers will try and get away with whatever they can.

If it wasn't for the fact that if you lit up a cig in say an airport or shopping mall that security was straight on you to put it out, folks would still be smoking in these places as well. Nothing will change until the venues themselves are fined. Imagine if the police walked into a restaurant or bar and started fining the establishment 20,000thb for each cig they found in the ash trays. Look how much money the police could make in a single night out in Pattaya.

I definitely think a hotline number is required or nothing will ever get done. The law has been on the books for years banning smoking in restaurants but they all still have ash trays on the tables. This means that the restaurant has no idea or motivation to enforce the rules. I hope this does change. Smokers should be forced to sit in small little boxes to smoke so they can enjoy all the smoke and not waste any. With the price of cigs what it is, why would they want to waste any?

I understand that Thailand has bigger issue to tackle but I sure hope this one does get some attention and smoking can be eradicated from public places where non-smokers have no choice but to breath in the air that is around them. If you chose to smoke then confine it to your own lungs!

[JetsetBkk]

In regard to smoking ban, i got fined only this week in phrom thong on tuesday for smoking outside a public park.

policeman riding round on a cycle with nothing else better to do.

I was told i could be fined 2000bt but as i only had on me 650bt he took 500bt thats one place i wont visit again as usual seems like farang are an easy target.

Whys that ? , its not even in force yet ...

There has been a smoking ban inside Benjasiri Park (next to The Emporium) for at least 6 years. Maybe that's where colin-uk was.

There are plenty of no smoking signs there, too - so no excuse. Well done the policeman "with nothing else better to do" - catching smokers was possibly his only job.

[toret]

What on earth does my name have to do with this?

And yes, I am fully aware that the law is older. But I doubt the enforcement would have been severe under the old regime.

[aaaaaa]

Hey, why all the negativity? Thailand is only doing what is happening around the world. ...

many smokers will be annoyed at the ban but how many wish they had never taken up smoking to begin with, knowing the health problems and expense associated with smoking?

now here is the rational opinion !

I totally agree

here is one evidence, fresh report about serious facts based on serious studies :

Smoking Will Kill 1 Billion People

Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008

Time on-line

One billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the century if current consumption trends continue, according to a global report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed $2 million to conduct the study, joined top WHO officials to present the findings. Among the litany of sobering statistics: 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century, and the yearly death toll could pass 8 million as soon as 2030 — 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly. "We're on a collision course," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

If the unveiling of the report felt more like an assault, it was meant to. Built into the report's six primary policy goals was a directive to countries to warn people about the many dangers of tobacco. Another of the study's main objectives was to get countries to assess their tobacco consumption. "If you can't measure a problem, you obviously can't manage it," said Mayor Bloomberg, who banned smoking in New York City's restaurants and bars in 2003.

The 369-page WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, bound like a high school yearbook and bundled with a "cigarette pack" of colored markers, called on governments to adhere to six tobacco control policies it calls MPOWER: monitor tobacco use; protect people from secondhand smoke; offer help to people who want to quit; warn about the risks of smoking; enforce bans on cigarette advertising; and raise tobacco taxes. The report also breaks down tobacco consumption and prevention efforts country by country. To date, it is the most comprehensive study of its kind at a global level, said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

The collected data should equip countries around the world to begin implementing anti-tobacco policies, Chan says, including smoking bans, aggressive anti-tobacco campaigns and massive tobacco tax hikes. According to the report, nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in 10 countries — China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. China alone accounts for nearly 30% of all smokers worldwide. Currently, only 5% of the world's population lives in countries — predominately in Western Europe — that have any antismoking policies in place. "These are straightforward and common sense measures within the reach of every country, regardless of income level," said Chan.

According to the study, the most effective tactic globally has been simply to raise prices. "Increasing taxes is the best way to decrease consumption," Bettcher said, pointing to the direct relationship between a rise in excise tax rates and a fall in cigarette purchases in South Africa between 1990 and 2006. Making tobacco prohibitively expensive, said Bettcher, will decrease consumption, especially among those who can least afford to smoke. Lower income people smoke significantly more than the wealthy, and spend a much higher proportion of their income on tobacco — 20% of the most impoverished households in Mexico spend as much as 11% of their household income on tobacco — mostly due to the tobacco industry's objective to get people addicted to nicotine, according to the study.

Another vulnerable group: women. Though women still smoke at just one quarter the rate of men, tobacco advertisers are increasingly targeting this largely untapped market. Though parts of Europe have enacted some of the most aggressive anti-tobacco policies in the world, in recent decades the rates of smoking between men and women have begun evening out — even as rates decrease among European men, they are increasing among women. Among adolescents in European Union member nations, girls may now be even more likely to smoke than boys. Globally, Chan said, "the rise of tobacco use among girls and young women is among the most ominous trends."

As with virtually all public-health problems, a major hurdle to reducing smoking, the study said, is lack of public education. People are not fully aware of the hazards of smoking, and it's a weakness that the tobacco industry is quick to exploit, Bettcher said. A recent Chinese study found that "only 25% of the Chinese population knew tobacco was bad for their health," he explained. Warnings should be bolder and scarier, said Bloomberg. Other countries put skull and crossbones symbols or photographs of blackened lungs on their cigarette packs, he said, and the U.S should follow suit: "The U.S. government isn't doing enough."

Asked whether he would back a federal ban on smoking in the workplace or public spaces, Bloomberg said he would, but added, "I don't think the federal government should prohibit the manufacture or sale of cigarettes," but that combatting tobacco should mean diminishing the demand.

Once a smoker himself, Bloomberg said he was able to quit only when he truly understood the consequences. "As I became more mature and started thinking, 'Do I want to live or not?' it was an easy decision." For those who want to smoke, however, he feels it should be their right, so long as they aren't harming others. "I happen to agree with those who think you have a right to kill yourself," he said.

[dezeure]

Great... its always the smokers who get picked on

We have a right to smoke if we want... We pay money to go out and if I drink I need a smoke... OK in a restaurant I agree. I myself prefer not to eat in smoke... but in a bar or pub... why not. or split up the pub (if large enough) like CM2 make it half smokers half non...

I thought closing at 2 was bad enough. BTW can anyone explain why BKK closes at 2, but Pattaya stays open till 4? Are these two different countries in one? I thought a law applied to the WHOLE country.

Another case of TIT...

[JetsetBkk]

What on earth does my name have to do with this?

Tourettes syndrome <-> uncontrollable shouting.

[JetsetBkk]

Great... its always the smokers who get picked on

We have a right to smoke if we want... We pay money to go out and if I drink I need a smoke... OK in a restaurant I agree. I myself prefer not to eat in smoke... but in a bar or pub... why not. or split up the pub (if large enough) like CM2 make it half smokers half non...

I thought closing at 2 was bad enough. BTW can anyone explain why BKK closes at 2, but Pattaya stays open till 4? Are these two different countries in one? I thought a law applied to the WHOLE country.

Another case of TIT...

No. Different zones, different closing times.

[mamanoodle]

What on earth does my name have to do with this?

And yes, I am fully aware that the law is older. But I doubt the enforcement would have been severe under the old regime.

Maybe toret similar to tourette (the syndrome where sufferers of this shout and swear, totally unbeknown to them, anwywhere, anytime anyplace! so to speak, a very distressing illness indeed, certainly nothing to joke about or take lightheartedly)

[Tony Clifton]

What on earth does my name have to do with this?

And yes, I am fully aware that the law is older. But I doubt the enforcement would have been severe under the old regime.

Maybe toret similar to tourette (the syndrome where sufferers of this shout and swear, totally unbeknown to them, anwywhere, anytime anyplace! so to speak, a very distressing illness indeed, certainly nothing to joke about or take lightheartedly)

I only suffer from it when I'm on the roads here and believe me, I'm fully aware of all the swearing, obscenities and hand gestures that Thai drivers cause me to do every minute or so.

The roads will still go unchecked for years where more are killed, maimed, disfigured and made orphans.

Smoke-free areas in Bangkok? The traffic alone makes up for the equivalent of about 60 million smokers all puffing at once.

[Atli]

Hey, why all the negativity? Thailand is only doing what is happening around the world. ...

many smokers will be annoyed at the ban but how many wish they had never taken up smoking to begin with, knowing the health problems and expense associated with smoking?

now here is the rational opinion !

I totally agree

here is one evidence, fresh report about serious facts based on serious studies :

Smoking Will Kill 1 Billion People

Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008

Time on-line

One billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the century if current consumption trends continue, according to a global report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed $2 million to conduct the study, joined top WHO officials to present the findings. Among the litany of sobering statistics: 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century, and the yearly death toll could pass 8 million as soon as 2030 — 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly. "We're on a collision course," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

If the unveiling of the report felt more like an assault, it was meant to. Built into the report's six primary policy goals was a directive to countries to warn people about the many dangers of tobacco. Another of the study's main objectives was to get countries to assess their tobacco consumption. "If you can't measure a problem, you obviously can't manage it," said Mayor Bloomberg, who banned smoking in New York City's restaurants and bars in 2003.

The 369-page WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, bound like a high school yearbook and bundled with a "cigarette pack" of colored markers, called on governments to adhere to six tobacco control policies it calls MPOWER: monitor tobacco use; protect people from secondhand smoke; offer help to people who want to quit; warn about the risks of smoking; enforce bans on cigarette advertising; and raise tobacco taxes. The report also breaks down tobacco consumption and prevention efforts country by country. To date, it is the most comprehensive study of its kind at a global level, said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

The collected data should equip countries around the world to begin implementing anti-tobacco policies, Chan says, including smoking bans, aggressive anti-tobacco campaigns and massive tobacco tax hikes. According to the report, nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in 10 countries — China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. China alone accounts for nearly 30% of all smokers worldwide. Currently, only 5% of the world's population lives in countries — predominately in Western Europe — that have any antismoking policies in place. "These are straightforward and common sense measures within the reach of every country, regardless of income level," said Chan.

According to the study, the most effective tactic globally has been simply to raise prices. "Increasing taxes is the best way to decrease consumption," Bettcher said, pointing to the direct relationship between a rise in excise tax rates and a fall in cigarette purchases in South Africa between 1990 and 2006. Making tobacco prohibitively expensive, said Bettcher, will decrease consumption, especially among those who can least afford to smoke. Lower income people smoke significantly more than the wealthy, and spend a much higher proportion of their income on tobacco — 20% of the most impoverished households in Mexico spend as much as 11% of their household income on tobacco — mostly due to the tobacco industry's objective to get people addicted to nicotine, according to the study.

Another vulnerable group: women. Though women still smoke at just one quarter the rate of men, tobacco advertisers are increasingly targeting this largely untapped market. Though parts of Europe have enacted some of the most aggressive anti-tobacco policies in the world, in recent decades the rates of smoking between men and women have begun evening out — even as rates decrease among European men, they are increasing among women. Among adolescents in European Union member nations, girls may now be even more likely to smoke than boys. Globally, Chan said, "the rise of tobacco use among girls and young women is among the most ominous trends."

As with virtually all public-health problems, a major hurdle to reducing smoking, the study said, is lack of public education. People are not fully aware of the hazards of smoking, and it's a weakness that the tobacco industry is quick to exploit, Bettcher said. A recent Chinese study found that "only 25% of the Chinese population knew tobacco was bad for their health," he explained. Warnings should be bolder and scarier, said Bloomberg. Other countries put skull and crossbones symbols or photographs of blackened lungs on their cigarette packs, he said, and the U.S should follow suit: "The U.S. government isn't doing enough."

Asked whether he would back a federal ban on smoking in the workplace or public spaces, Bloomberg said he would, but added, "I don't think the federal government should prohibit the manufacture or sale of cigarettes," but that combatting tobacco should mean diminishing the demand.

Once a smoker himself, Bloomberg said he was able to quit only when he truly understood the consequences. "As I became more mature and started thinking, 'Do I want to live or not?' it was an easy decision." For those who want to smoke, however, he feels it should be their right, so long as they aren't harming others. "I happen to agree with those who think you have a right to kill yourself," he said.

LoL LoL LoL ........ but I guarantee you the rest will die, too. The chances of getting lung cancer from Bangkok's air pollution at its best is just about a 100,000 times more likely than from second hand smoke in a park, where outside it, thousands of stinkers drive by every hour, and cohorts of industries add to the for non-smokers so pleasurable air mix. According to the usual Anti-Smoke Nazis who have their field day now, the real polluters smell of roses and blow pure oxygen out of their exhausts and smoke stakes. I feel sorry for every cop who needs to cover his mouth and noise because of us smokers when he regulates traffic at intersections. Oh, and did I mention lead? Get real, it's called bashing.

[gavin hawaii]

many smokers will be annoyed at the ban but how many wish they had never taken up smoking to begin with, knowing the health problems and expense associated with smoking?

Well said. As a smoker myself for over 20 years I completely understand the issue of second hand smoke. It is totally wrong to suject others to this health issue. The less places there are to smoke publicly the less we smoke. I was upset when this ban occured in Hawaii but find myself smoking less when I go to the bars as it is a bit of inconvience. If I go to a BJ bar can I have them blow the smoke instead??

[walkon]

I think it is not so much about smokers rights versus non smokers, drinkers, etc as it is about the governments rightful wish to lower healcare costs. Not only healthcare for smokers but for second hand smokeers. Although drunks get into fights and alcoholism also destroys lives and families, a person drinking does not force alcohol down the throats of others nearby. Unfortunately smoking forces smoke to be breathed by others not to mention the smell sticking to hair and clothes. A non smoke producing nicotine delivery system is fine as it does not force others to suffer.

Smoke free pubs will show adolescents that it is indeed "cool" to be at the club and not smoke. Smoking and alcohol do indeed make society pay dearly both in disease, suffering, and death. Normal social drinking is not associated with the devastating damage caused by abuse and/or addiction.

[walkon]

Hey, why all the negativity? Thailand is only doing what is happening around the world. ...

many smokers will be annoyed at the ban but how many wish they had never taken up smoking to begin with, knowing the health problems and expense associated with smoking?

now here is the rational opinion !

I totally agree

here is one evidence, fresh report about serious facts based on serious studies :

Smoking Will Kill 1 Billion People

Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008

Time on-line

Amazing how smokers will sit outside close to awful traffic and exhaust fumes and smoke.

Perhaps bars specifically designated as "smoking" bars would be ok thus non smokers would enter "at their own risk"

One billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the century if current consumption trends continue, according to a global report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed $2 million to conduct the study, joined top WHO officials to present the findings. Among the litany of sobering statistics: 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century, and the yearly death toll could pass 8 million as soon as 2030 — 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly. "We're on a collision course," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

If the unveiling of the report felt more like an assault, it was meant to. Built into the report's six primary policy goals was a directive to countries to warn people about the many dangers of tobacco. Another of the study's main objectives was to get countries to assess their tobacco consumption. "If you can't measure a problem, you obviously can't manage it," said Mayor Bloomberg, who banned smoking in New York City's restaurants and bars in 2003.

The 369-page WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, bound like a high school yearbook and bundled with a "cigarette pack" of colored markers, called on governments to adhere to six tobacco control policies it calls MPOWER: monitor tobacco use; protect people from secondhand smoke; offer help to people who want to quit; warn about the risks of smoking; enforce bans on cigarette advertising; and raise tobacco taxes. The report also breaks down tobacco consumption and prevention efforts country by country. To date, it is the most comprehensive study of its kind at a global level, said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

The collected data should equip countries around the world to begin implementing anti-tobacco policies, Chan says, including smoking bans, aggressive anti-tobacco campaigns and massive tobacco tax hikes. According to the report, nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in 10 countries — China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. China alone accounts for nearly 30% of all smokers worldwide. Currently, only 5% of the world's population lives in countries — predominately in Western Europe — that have any antismoking policies in place. "These are straightforward and common sense measures within the reach of every country, regardless of income level," said Chan.

According to the study, the most effective tactic globally has been simply to raise prices. "Increasing taxes is the best way to decrease consumption," Bettcher said, pointing to the direct relationship between a rise in excise tax rates and a fall in cigarette purchases in South Africa between 1990 and 2006. Making tobacco prohibitively expensive, said Bettcher, will decrease consumption, especially among those who can least afford to smoke. Lower income people smoke significantly more than the wealthy, and spend a much higher proportion of their income on tobacco — 20% of the most impoverished households in Mexico spend as much as 11% of their household income on tobacco — mostly due to the tobacco industry's objective to get people addicted to nicotine, according to the study.

Another vulnerable group: women. Though women still smoke at just one quarter the rate of men, tobacco advertisers are increasingly targeting this largely untapped market. Though parts of Europe have enacted some of the most aggressive anti-tobacco policies in the world, in recent decades the rates of smoking between men and women have begun evening out — even as rates decrease among European men, they are increasing among women. Among adolescents in European Union member nations, girls may now be even more likely to smoke than boys. Globally, Chan said, "the rise of tobacco use among girls and young women is among the most ominous trends."

As with virtually all public-health problems, a major hurdle to reducing smoking, the study said, is lack of public education. People are not fully aware of the hazards of smoking, and it's a weakness that the tobacco industry is quick to exploit, Bettcher said. A recent Chinese study found that "only 25% of the Chinese population knew tobacco was bad for their health," he explained. Warnings should be bolder and scarier, said Bloomberg. Other countries put skull and crossbones symbols or photographs of blackened lungs on their cigarette packs, he said, and the U.S should follow suit: "The U.S. government isn't doing enough."

Asked whether he would back a federal ban on smoking in the workplace or public spaces, Bloomberg said he would, but added, "I don't think the federal government should prohibit the manufacture or sale of cigarettes," but that combatting tobacco should mean diminishing the demand.

Once a smoker himself, Bloomberg said he was able to quit only when he truly understood the consequences. "As I became more mature and started thinking, 'Do I want to live or not?' it was an easy decision." For those who want to smoke, however, he feels it should be their right, so long as they aren't harming others. "I happen to agree with those who think you have a right to kill yourself," he said.

LoL LoL LoL ........ but I guarantee you the rest will die, too. The chances of getting lung cancer from Bangkok's air pollution at its best is just about a 100,000 times more likely than from second hand smoke in a park, where outside it, thousands of stinkers drive by every hour, and cohorts of industries add to the for non-smokers so pleasurable air mix. According to the usual Anti-Smoke Nazis who have their field day now, the real polluters smell of roses and blow pure oxygen out of their exhausts and smoke stakes. I feel sorry for every cop who needs to cover his mouth and noise because of us smokers when he regulates traffic at intersections. Oh, and did I mention lead? Get real, it's called bashing.

[LPCustom69]

I wouldn't be surprised if alcohol is also on the agenda.

Again.........

So they are soooo concerned about getting exposed to second-hand smoke WHILE GETTING DRUNK IN THE PUB.

Logical, no???

I am for a TOTAL BAN ON ALCOHOL, STARTING IMMEDIATELY. And leave the smokers in peace, they do NOT cause accidents, fights etc.

Regards.....

Thanh (non-smoker by the way but don't mind it the least bit)

[Zpete]

Smoking is a pleasure to many people, EXTREMELY mentally challenged they be, and unnatural.

Sex is a pleasure for almost everyone, certianly NOT mentally challenged, totally natural.

Sex is done in private.

Smoking should be done in private behind closed doors. NOT in bed.

Smokers are the most selfish socially inconsiderate people on the planet in modern times.

NO SMOKING IN PUBLIC

NO SEX IN PUBLIC

FAIR TO ALL CONCERNED.

[hagler]

Again.........

So they are soooo concerned about getting exposed to second-hand smoke WHILE GETTING DRUNK IN THE PUB.

Logical, no???

I am for a TOTAL BAN ON ALCOHOL, STARTING IMMEDIATELY. And leave the smokers in peace, they do NOT cause accidents, fights etc.

Regards.....

Thanh (non-smoker by the way but don't mind it the least bit)

I have to agree with you. Smoking turns you into a person who smells (and slowly but quietly dies of cancer).

But alcohol turns people into...... well look around at what you saw on your last night out...

My last night out i saw a hel_l of a lot of smoking coke-drinkers in DJ Station. Lots of drunk guys too. And i personally still prefer someone's clothes to reek of smoke (because those can be taken off and deposited on the balcony) than someone's breath reeking of beer or whiskey (that smell tends to stay even thru a 15-minute toothbrushing session followed by a thorough Listerine-abuse). And the next-morning-hangover i can also do without, thank you very much.

Oh and Alcohol turns people into the mess found in totaled car wrecks, the knife-wielding attackers of housewives periodically seen on TV and the mass-gang-fights that leads to banning of rock concerts etc. And also the puke puddles on the sidewalk that i have to avoid on my way to 7-Eleven every morning (i live close to a pub) were NOT caused by cigarettes, i can guarantee that.

By the way my boss in Germany was a chain smoker. he started smoking at age 12, was a chain smoker by age 20 and went thru about 12 packs a day from then on. He died at age 77 - falling from a ladder while fixing the roof of his house. My own grandfather died of cancer when he was 74, he hadn't touched a cigarette in his life.

regards.....

Thanh

and I turned the life support machine off on my father at 60 from lung cancer from smoking...

[gampaan]

People in Bkk worring about a little second hand smoke are like lepers worried about catching the flu. Been outside lately? If they are so concerned about health, why not start with emissions control? Seen any food stalls lately?

[Mighty Mouse]

This ban could have a serious impact on some of the red light district entertainment venues? Some of the show girls will need to find a new act.

The smoking cigarette act may now have to be eliminated from the show.

Let's hope that the ping pong ball act and the darts into the balloon act still survive.

[GungaDin]

Can I be fined for smoking after a bonk?