Thai Government To Expand Non-Smoking Zones

[webfact]

Number of no-smoking zones expanded

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Educational centres, banks, religious places, sports complexes and hospitals will be turned into no-smoking zones in the next four months, Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, said yesterday.

According to the Public Health Ministry's announcement on February 27, smoking would be prohibited inside all public buildings, apart from open-air areas.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport is the only public area where a smoking zone will be allowed inside.

Educational institutes, petrol stations, offices and state agencies will be allowed to set up outside smoking areas.

Director of the Department of Diseases Control's Office of Alcohol Beverage and Tobacco Control, Dr Churit Tengtriseng, said smoking inside condominium buildings would be totally banned in the future.

At present, condominium residents are only allowed to smoke inside their rooms, while smoking on balconies is prohibited.

The ministerial announcement will go into effect in the next four months and those violating the law will be fined Bt2,000 each.

Jurin said the new measures were taken to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - under which member countries are encouraged to ban tobacco advertising and create a smoke-free environment.

Churit, meanwhile, said the ministry would also take other measures such as making the images displayed on cigarette packages larger as well as adding new and more graphic illustrations. Lawbreakers can be reported at the 1600 hotline.

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Smoke-free zones

Smoking is prohibited in health-care units, veterinary clinics, educational centres, religious centres, both inside and outside sports centres. Open-air smoking areas can be set up. Lawbreakers will be fined Bt2,000.

Smoking is prohibited in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. A smoking zone inside the building can be set up. Lawbreakers will be fined Bt2,000.

Smoking is prohibited inside educational institutes, offices, state agencies or petrol stations. Specific smoking areas can be set up outside. Lawbreakers will be fined Bt2,000.

Source: Public Health Ministry.

-- The Nation 2010-03-03

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[Thai at Heart]

Smoking will be banned inside apartments? Sounds all very 1984 to me.

I find it incredible in this country that the government is extremely good at passing laws that it doesn't need to rely on the police to enforce, but prefer to use the power of peer pressure and people spying on each other.

They can't get people to wear bicycle helmets since the police have to enforce that one. But they can get government employees to wear yellow shirts on Mondays.

[rayong09]

[theoldgit]

Might it be an idea to enforce the current restrictions before making up new rules?

As for the banning of smoking in condo's, I'm a non-smoker, but give em a break. How on earth are they going to enforce that when they cannot, or will not, enforce the law in The Huntman at The Landmark?

[Starrysky]

Smoking will be banned inside apartments? Sounds all very 1984 to me.

I find it incredible in this country that the government is extremely good at passing laws that it doesn't need to rely on the police to enforce, but prefer to use the power of peer pressure and people spying on each other.

They can't get people to wear bicycle helmets since the police have to enforce that one. But they can get government employees to wear yellow shirts on Mondays.

And how about REALLY enforcing the ban on burning up here in the north? Friends have just left Chiang Mai earlier than planned because of the horrible air quality. The land/rubbish burning enhanced by noxious traffic fumes became just too much to take.

[Thai at Heart]

Smoking will be banned inside apartments? Sounds all very 1984 to me.

I find it incredible in this country that the government is extremely good at passing laws that it doesn't need to rely on the police to enforce, but prefer to use the power of peer pressure and people spying on each other.

They can't get people to wear bicycle helmets since the police have to enforce that one. But they can get government employees to wear yellow shirts on Mondays.

And how about REALLY enforcing the ban on burning up here in the north? Friends have just left Chiang Mai earlier than planned because of the horrible air quality. The land/rubbish burning enhanced by noxious traffic fumes became just too much to take.

Was there last week, absolutely shocking and a friend of mine is leaving soon also.

I have heard a dozen stories about why they burn as much as they do from clearing rice stubble to stimulating mushrooms. Why do they continue to burn the countryside?

[MESmith]

 

I have heard a dozen stories about why they burn as much as they do from clearing rice stubble to stimulating mushrooms. Why do they continue to burn the countryside?

Because that is the way it has always been done.  You don't honestly expect these uneducated "serfs" to change  their habits in less than 2 or 3 generations

[Evergreen]

Might it be an idea to enforce the current restrictions before making up new rules?

As for the banning of smoking in condo's, I'm a non-smoker, but give em a break. How on earth are they going to enforce that when they cannot, or will not, enforce the law in The Huntman at The Landmark?

Exactly, just how are they going to ahem, "enforce" the ban for residents?? Have special undercover smoking police with binoculars peering into the big bad peoples condo's to see if they smoking or not?? God help the reidents if they close curtains/blinds. What then? Swat team comes barging through the door as they suspect you may be smoking inside??...

It certainly gives me a laugh when i read about these new "rules".

[Thai at Heart]

 

I have heard a dozen stories about why they burn as much as they do from clearing rice stubble to stimulating mushrooms. Why do they continue to burn the countryside?

Because that is the way it has always been done.  You don't honestly expect these uneducated "serfs" to change  their habits in less than 2 or 3 generations

That isn't entirely true. The level of pollution now is far in excess of what it was 10 to 15 years ago. Why do farmers in the north appear to burn far more commonly than other areas of the country? Some paddy is burnt, but also land in the hills. Why? These are different uses.

The reasons I have had range from:

a. It kills nematodes in the soil so is beneficial

b. Too lazy to plough

c. Encourages mushrooms so is beneficial

d. Clears illegal land

e. Clears land that can't be ploughed because it is too hilly

Now, we sit around and say we can't expect them to change. Well agricultural habits change in this country year by year. Lands moves from fruit to rubber to corn, so nothing is set in stone. Fertilisers come in and out of fashion, pesticide use changes etc etc.

Does anyone know, and by this I mean direct knowledge of why farmers potentially believe burning to be beneficial. I have worked with farmers for years and I know that they aren't nearly as lazy or stupid as them darn "city folk" would have anyone believe.

[Evergreen]

Hmmm...here was i thinking this thread was abot new rules about extending CIGARETTE smoking bans to more areas...or is it just me??....:-)

[Wolfie]

Hmmm...here was i thinking this thread was abot new rules about extending CIGARETTE smoking bans to more areas...or is it just me??....:-)

Quite true - lets bring the discussion back on Topic please.

I will remove any further posts that are not based on the subject of Cigarette bans

[MESmith]

I'm not a smoker, I don't live in a condo, but out in a very smokey northern countryside.  Where are smokers living in condos supposed to smoke?

[Bagwan]

According to the Public Health Ministry's announcement on February 27, smoking would be prohibited inside all public buildings, apart from open-air areas.

:D

Do the ears of these panjandrums close every time they open their mouths?

[bangkokrick]

They have not enforced the no smoking policy in bars and restaurants, so how will they enforce this bill. Complete nonsense!

So long as there is corruption in the police force the Government will not be able to enforce anything.

Cheers, Rick

[Phil Conners]

Yes, agree! Not a bad idea but start by enforcing the existing bans before adding new ones.

[junglist]

Nice, well they could try to take my cigars but they’ll have to do over my dead body. Hahahah Oh I have a house never mind. 5555555

[Sunderland]

Might it be an idea to enforce the current restrictions before making up new rules?

As for the banning of smoking in condo's, I'm a non-smoker, but give em a break. How on earth are they going to enforce that when they cannot, or will not, enforce the law in The Huntman at The Landmark?

Regarding smoking in corridors, elevators and other commonly used areas within the concrete walls of the condo building, with the exemption of private rooms, I say "Give me a break!". Why should I put up with it? Filfthy habit. Go and smoke outside <deleted>. I have no problem telling people to go and smoke outside. Should anyone wish to pollute the airspace, fine. I'll come and dump a week's worth of garbage in front of their room and leave it there to rot. Why? I don't know ... maybe I have as much right to do that as someone has to blow crap in my face. Friendly neighbours and all that. Nice.

[SeanMoran]

Good to see that they've decied to ban smoking at petrol (benzine) stations. I thought that was already common sense? As for the rest of these places, it has seemed that way in my personal experience over the past few years anyway, and again it's just common sense. If you teach at a school, don't be seen by the students with a smoke on school grounds, but go for a ride between lessons somewhere off the property for a break - set a gfood example for the kids. If you go to a restaurant for dinner, just work out which way the wind is blowing and sit outside at the downwind end of the alfresco verandah.

Don Muang used to have a nice outdoor bar where smoking was okay, like Harry's at Changi. If you're waiting a few hours for lost Jetstar baggage to arrive on the next flight at Suvarnabhumi, there's nowhere, not indoors NOR ourdoors, where you can light a ciggie, unless you forfeit the lost suitcase, go to the carpark at door #8 for a durrie, and then beg and plead your way back through customs the wrong way. Suvarnabhumi is total mayhem for civilised people with tobacco.

To add to a famous Yul Brynner line, Whatever you do, don't smoke at benzine stations.

[catmac]

Yet another blow to those of us who hoped that we had left the worst excesses of the Nanny State mentality behind in the West! Strange, but I don't think the health fascists in the UK have tried to ban individuals from smoking in their own apartments - yet.

Of course, the only saving grace is the fact that these laws are as unlikely to be enforced as that requiring motorcyclists to wear crash helmets!

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

Yet another increase in the witch hunt for the evil smokers. I am a non-smoker but they (smokers) don't bother me the least bit.

When will they create some non-drinking zones?? Because drunk people bother me, and greatly so. Specially on the road.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[SeanMoran]

Hi.

Yet another increase in the witch hunt for the evil smokers. I am a non-smoker but they (smokers) don't bother me the least bit.

When will they create some non-drinking zones?? Because drunk people bother me, and greatly so. Specially on the road.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Thank you Thanh. It is because of people like you that I try to go out of my way to be very careful who I smoke around, and always judge the wind directions at restaurants, and try to stay out of sight of groups with kids, so they don't even SEE someone with a ciggie in their gob. It's people like you who encourage me to be aware when I light up walking down the street, and if I happen to pass by some other people on my way, keep the smoke down in the palm of my hand and don't inhale or exhale until having passed that other group.

It's people like you who help to encourage tobacco smokers to be polite and think about where that smoke is going to blow, and when, and on whom, and whose kids, and stuff like that. Of course, there are much greater carcinogen problems here in Ban Chang from the smoke from the distant Maptaphut refinery fires, but this modern-world western society that is being inflicted upon Thailand now isn't about right or wrong, and where the pollution is really coming from, but about witch-hunts, like you say. Welcome to the dark ages once more.

[ovaltina]

I was just looking at that rosey healthy~looking specimen holding the sign in the photo, and I thought 'well if that's what non-smokers look like in old age, I'm going to start smoking 40/day right now!'.

Edited March 3, 2010 by ovaltina

[anotherpeter]

Whatever did happen to the smoking bans in bars? I thought they must have changed the laws to allow it again, because I haven't seen any bar in the last 12 months that has even attempted to ask people not to smoke - more often they bring ash trays before even being asked.

[SeanMoran]

Whatever did happen to the smoking bans in bars? I thought they must have changed the laws to allow it again, because I haven't seen any bar in the last 12 months that has even attempted to ask people not to smoke - more often they bring ash trays before even being asked.

The Rayong Brewery still abides by it. I went there on my birthday just after Christmas. The same wonderful house-band was playing as they were four years earlier, but it was just impossible to stay as I was alone, so what was I supposed to do? Pick up my bottle of beer and glass and head down onto the stage to ask the band to grab the drums and the keyboards and the mikes and PAs and follow me out to the car park so that I could have a smoke with my beer while relaxing on my birthday and listening to the music?

There was a 'Western Saloon' if I remember the name, down in Chanthaburi, where I went a month later to the day in January, and their roof was open to the sky, and the acuostic guitar vocalist duo played and sang some memorable ballads, while I sat at my table, away from anyone else who was already there when I walked in, with my ashtray and bright -red container of Marlboro deliberately placed in a very prominent location on the table so that anyone who had a phobia for nicotine could sit at one of the many other available tables. It was like a birthday come later by a month, that night, and everybody was happy all night; staff and patrons, the band and me.

Luckily it didn't rain that night.

[junglist]

I always thought drinking and smoking were the Thai way of population control. Hummmm Guess I was wrong. Oh well…

[SeanMoran]

I always thought drinking and smoking were the Thai way of population control. Hummmm Guess I was wrong. Oh well…

Now we have the westernised authoritarian idea of 'population control' to cope with.

[junglist]

I always thought drinking and smoking were the Thai way of population control. Hummmm Guess I was wrong. Oh well…

Now we have the westernised authoritarian idea of 'population control' to cope with.

Nice, 5555 cou, co, cough cough. Sorry was coughing from all that smoke. Ya know if they would fix just one thing here please let it be all the poor dogs dying in the streets. Every tourist I have ever met ranks them so high on the dislikes of Thailand. Fix this and I will vote for you at one of the elections we seem to have every other week.

[OZEMADE]

Good to see that they've decied to ban smoking at petrol (benzine) stations. I thought that was already common sense? As for the rest of these places, it has seemed that way in my personal experience over the past few years anyway, and again it's just common sense. If you teach at a school, don't be seen by the students with a smoke on school grounds, but go for a ride between lessons somewhere off the property for a break - set a gfood example for the kids. If you go to a restaurant for dinner, just work out which way the wind is blowing and sit outside at the downwind end of the alfresco verandah.

Don Muang used to have a nice outdoor bar where smoking was okay, like Harry's at Changi. If you're waiting a few hours for lost Jetstar baggage to arrive on the next flight at Suvarnabhumi, there's nowhere, not indoors NOR ourdoors, where you can light a ciggie, unless you forfeit the lost suitcase, go to the carpark at door #8 for a durrie, and then beg and plead your way back through customs the wrong way. Suvarnabhumi is total mayhem for civilised people with tobacco.

To add to a famous Yul Brynner line, Whatever you do, don't smoke at benzine stations.

It does not say that are going to be banned from smoking at Petrol (Benzine Service Stations) at all.

To quote,

Educational institutes, petrol stations, offices and state agencies will be allowed to set up outside smoking areas.

Which most of them have already.

[kikenyoy]

Is it illegal to smoke on baht buses? I'd say about 5-10% of them have no smoking signs in the back.

I almost got in a fight with a farang who was smoking in one. He said that since it is open air it is fine. Meanwhile he was complaining about inhaling the dust from the construction!

I usually just move away from them or get off, but there was a pregnant Thai woman sitting nearby who was complaining about it so I felt I had to speak up.

[ThailandTommy]

Can someone explain this proposed change to 'me mum'