Thai Government To Expand Non-Smoking Zones

[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.

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.

Isn't it nice that your sort of people will have the right to walk around outside benzine stations and light your fires, baby.

[SeanMoran]

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.

It is common courtesy, which is not guaranteed on any Internet forum. Of you are hanging off the back of a baht bus and there are few men and no ladies onboard, and someone else is smoking a durrie, then of course you have the right to light up. providing you make an offer to every other man on that bus and blow your smoke with the wind when the bus is at high speed.

There should be IQ tests for tourist visas, as well as the others.

[bangkokrick]

In my experience it seems to be different rules in Bangkok to most other areas. The bars that I used to go to in Bangkok enforce the no smoking rule, but here in Pattaya it seems that you can smoke almost anywhere? I as a smoker respect the laws if they are enforced and I am OK to go outside for a smoke, but if the laws are flaunted, what the hel_l! The only thing that I worry about is, will the waitress that gives you the ashtray honour your fine if the Police raid the bar?

I don't think so.

Cheers, Rick

[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.

Isn't it nice that your sort of people will have the right to walk around outside benzine stations and light your fires, baby.

Obviously you have not read it properly?

Allowed to set up outside smoking areas.

[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.

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.

Isn't it nice that your sort of people will have the right to walk around outside benzine stations and light your fires, baby.

Obviously you have not read it properly?

Allowed to set up outside smoking areas.

Then certainly I fully encourage you to walk up to qa 91 nor 95 octane bowser OUTSIDE a benzine station and light a cigarette. I don't need to read this thread to understand the likely consequences, buit I could be wrong, so why don't you go outside and try it out for yourself?

I hope that you have a group of anti-smokers right there at the bowser when you light up outside. That might make for good media politics.

[NALAK]

Can someone explain this proposed change to 'me mum'

doesnt she know smoking kills

[nisakiman]

So the march of the zealots continues...

They banned smoking in bars etc here in Greece last year. This snippet appeared on the BBC News site a few weeks ago.

Thank God for the Greeks, and their distain for interfering busybodies trying to tell them how they should live their lives.

[jaltsc]

Of course this had to be part of a WHO program. This is just a public relations opportunity to show the world that Thailand can be responsible when it comes to health concerns. Other than showing off a sign which is supposed to make the world see that Thailand is curbing smoking, there will be not teeth to back up the law. Open air areas include the front of the buildings where no smoking is allowed. Of course you have to go through an army of smokers to get into and out of the buildings. I would like to see how many people have been fined for smoking in no smoke areas. I think the number would hover around ZERO. The smoking areas in airports have the doors open and if you pass by them you are inhaling second hand smoke. All hotel rooms and hallways reek from the smell of smoke. I have seen law enforcement officials and monks smoking in bus terminals in front of the sign that proclaims a 2000 THB fine for smoking. There has been no effort to curb actual smoking in Thailand and the campaign in nothing more than a big JOKE. I wouldn't be surprised if the health minister is a two pack a day man. Of course this has a secondary gain for the government. They don't have to pay out many old age pensions or social security since the life span of the average Thai citizen is reduced due to unhealthy lifestyles. And...think of all the taxes which are collected from tobacco sales. The next thing they are going to try and convince the world of is that there is no consumption of alcohol on Sonkrun.

[jaltsc]

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 who stops the government officials from smoking???

[virtualtraveller]

Their rules are disingenuous really. You can't smoke on your balcony (where the smoke easily dissipates) but you can smoke in your enclosed condo, which of course contributes to the very health hazard they are combatting. Of course, the smoke eventually gets turfed out into the open air through air conditioning units.

Agree, it's all pointless posturing and impractical policy made around a board room table by over paid, under worked civil servants who've never once stepped into a bar and realised that our fine police are hopeless at enforcing it.

It's a joke really, people who go to bars are more likely to be smokers, part of the restaurant is near windows so the bar owners consider it to be a smoking section, but the smoke just drifts across to whole bar area. Most bar owners are contemptuous about this law, they even put ashtrays out on every table!

[theoldgit]

The only thing that I worry about is, will the waitress that gives you the ashtray honour your fine if the Police raid the bar?

I don't think so.

I asked that very question to the management of The Landmark, I sent an email to the guy in charge of the bars and restaurants asking that if they provided ash trays and I was I was subsequently fined 2,000B would they compensate me as I was smoking with their approval, my email was ignored.

I wonder has anybody ever been caught and fined for breaching the smoking laws, or indeed have establishments ever been fined, I doubt it. I imagine police corruption takes precedence over Thai laws.

[animatic]

People can smoek in the open air spaces of Public buildings, but not inside,

and can smoke inside their purchased condos, but not outside on the balcony....

Amazingly strong logic there.... NOT!

[Evergreen]

People can smoek in the open air spaces of Public buildings, but not inside,

and can smoke inside their purchased condos, but not outside on the balcony....

Amazingly strong logic there.... NOT!

Yes, that's the law at present and i agree it makes no sense to say you cannot smoke on your balcony where it'll blow away in the wind...but you can smoke inside your condo where it's enclosed, it's nonsense.

The new rules being brought in equally seem to make no sense. How on earth they're going to stop people smoking inside their own condo's is anyones guess? A new secret/undercover smoking police squad to spy on the evil bad people who dare to light up in the privacy of their own homes where they're bothering no-one apart from themselves? I really do wonder how much these people get paid for coming up with these new rules but it always brings a smile to my face when i read about them though i must say.

[junglist]

You want to see real smoking go to China. dam_n I think they give you a pack right after the finish your birth certificate.

[Wolfie]

Several Off Topic replies have been removed from this thread

[keestha]

I smoke, but I stick to the rules, and I never smoke when being too close to non smokers.

Would it still be allowed, if a gasstation doesn't have a smoking area, to smoke inside the car with windows closed, only to open them when back on the highway? After 200 KM driving non stop I really need a cigarette, and I never smoke whilst driving, because it would make me drive less safely.

Edited March 4, 2010 by keestha

[Evergreen]

I smoke, but I stick to the rules, and I never smoke when being too close to non smokers.

Would it still be allowed, if a gasstation doesn't have a smoking area, to smoke inside the car with windows closed, only to open them when back on the highway? After 200 KM driving non stop I really need a cigarette, and I never smoke whilst driving, because it would make me drive less safely.

After 200k you have to stop??...i have to stop about every 20k's Seriously though, i also respect where i am and who is around me as to whether i smoke or not as i know it's a bad habit. I never smoke in a restuarant as even i as a smoker hates it when someones sitting blowing smoke in my face as well as my food, it's not clever and it's not funny...if i feel the need i always just walk outside, round the corner where it's not so enclosed.

[theoldgit]

Seriously though, i also respect where i am and who is around me as to whether i smoke or not as i know it's a bad habit. I never smoke in a restaurant as even i as a smoker hates it when someones sitting blowing smoke in my face as well as my food, it's not clever and it's not funny...if i feel the need i always just walk outside, round the corner where it's not so enclosed.

Whilst most smokers display your level of courtesy and consideration, there are a small number who don't give a stuff about the comfort of those around them, with an even smaller number seeming to take great delight in making others uncomfortable with the wafts of their exhaled smoke.

[naijai]

a ban within the apartments - this will I expect, be yet another sporadically enforced law.

It does seem really strange though. How would it be implemented well? Would one be fined on the basis of stale cigarette smoke smell from within your own home, using some sort of hand-held tobacco smoke detector device perhaps, Or would it all just work on trust, by trusting the reporting neighbour to be be correct in their accusations. The response team sure would need to be quick to catch you in the act wouldn't they?

and the government applealing for spies, hmmmm Rock on!

[Evergreen]

Seriously though, i also respect where i am and who is around me as to whether i smoke or not as i know it's a bad habit. I never smoke in a restaurant as even i as a smoker hates it when someones sitting blowing smoke in my face as well as my food, it's not clever and it's not funny...if i feel the need i always just walk outside, round the corner where it's not so enclosed.

Whilst most smokers display your level of courtesy and consideration, there are a small number who don't give a stuff about the comfort of those around them, with an even smaller number seeming to take great delight in making others uncomfortable with the wafts of their exhaled smoke.

Yeah, i do realise i'm in a minority in this type of thing. Some people are just so ignorant/arrogant and have the attitude of "if i can smoke i will smoke, to hel_l with what anyone else thinks". When i was in Scotland a few years ago smoking was banned in all public/enclosed spaces and at first it was weird having to go outside in the freezing cold and rain (and that was summer ) but the majority accepted it and there was no problem whatsoever. I personally quite like to get on my feet here and take a wee walk around a have a smoke before heading back in....mind you, it's way much easier here where it's still really warm and not chucking it down with rain though....

[ovaltina]

If you smoke a cigarette in your condo, and then open the door to the balcony, are you supposed to stand on the balcony waving the smoke back inside with a big bamboo & mulberry-paper hand-fan.

[anotherpeter]

... How would it be implemented well? Would one be fined on the basis of stale cigarette smoke smell from within your own home, using some sort of hand-held tobacco smoke detector device perhaps, Or would it all just work on trust, by trusting the reporting neighbour to be be correct in their accusations. The response team sure would need to be quick to catch you in the act wouldn't they?

They'll use the GT200s to detect the smoke.

[Thai at Heart]

If you smoke a cigarette in your condo, and then open the door to the balcony, are you supposed to stand on the balcony waving the smoke back inside with a big bamboo & mulberry-paper hand-fan.

On the balcony, off the balcony. This just proves that the legislature doesn't know how to put legislation together. If anything, one would presume with central air conditioning systems involved, smoking on the balcony would be infinitely less anti-social than smoking in the apartment.

But then of course, I doubt many of the MP's of the country every set foot in an average condo, or run the risk of being impinged upon by such a badly written law.

[SeanMoran]

If you smoke a cigarette in your condo, and then open the door to the balcony, are you supposed to stand on the balcony waving the smoke back inside with a big bamboo & mulberry-paper hand-fan.

On the balcony, off the balcony. This just proves that the legislature doesn't know how to put legislation together. If anything, one would presume with central air conditioning systems involved, smoking on the balcony would be infinitely less anti-social than smoking in the apartment.

But then of course, I doubt many of the MP's of the country every set foot in an average condo, or run the risk of being impinged upon by such a badly written law.

One courtesy that is worth remembering when on a balcony is to NOT ash over the balcony, because you wouldn't want the tenant upstairs to ash on you just the same. It's sofrt of a natural thing to do when you're out on the balcony watching the sunset, but it's worth remembering as something not to do. That's possibly part of what upsets anti-smokers, and in that regard, it's a fair call. Don't ash a smoke off a balcony.

[Evergreen]

If you smoke a cigarette in your condo, and then open the door to the balcony, are you supposed to stand on the balcony waving the smoke back inside with a big bamboo & mulberry-paper hand-fan.

On the balcony, off the balcony. This just proves that the legislature doesn't know how to put legislation together. If anything, one would presume with central air conditioning systems involved, smoking on the balcony would be infinitely less anti-social than smoking in the apartment.

But then of course, I doubt many of the MP's of the country every set foot in an average condo, or run the risk of being impinged upon by such a badly written law.

One courtesy that is worth remembering when on a balcony is to NOT ash over the balcony, because you wouldn't want the tenant upstairs to ash on you just the same. It's sofrt of a natural thing to do when you're out on the balcony watching the sunset, but it's worth remembering as something not to do. That's possibly part of what upsets anti-smokers, and in that regard, it's a fair call. Don't ash a smoke off a balcony.

The MP'S, just like any country really, do not have a grasp on real life as is quite openly shown here with this quite ridiculous rule that you cannot even have a smoke in the privacy of your own condo.

Oh....i never "ash" over the balcony.....never....well....ok...maybe i did once but i was slightly Mao and i've never done it again, honest!!

[grantbkk]

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.

That's the point. No civilized or thinking person smokes at all. That said, enforce the laws on the books. Don't

make a big deal bragging about a new law that will never be enforced.

Who is the bigger joke, the "civilized smoker" at the airport or the offical talking as a result of a brain fart?

[SeanMoran]

That's the point. No civilized or thinking person smokes at all. That said, enforce the laws on the books. Don't

make a big deal bragging about a new law that will never be enforced.

Who is the bigger joke, the "civilized smoker" at the airport or the offical talking as a result of a brain fart?

Thank you for your opinion.

[Evergreen]

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.

That's the point. No civilized or thinking person smokes at all. That said, enforce the laws on the books. Don't

make a big deal bragging about a new law that will never be enforced.

Who is the bigger joke, the "civilized smoker" at the airport or the offical talking as a result of a brain fart?

Oh dear, i wondered how long it would take befoe one of the anti-smoking brigade appeared to abuse anyone who smokes. Remember, smoking is LEGAL, it's not a criminal offence unless you smoke in any of the designated non-smoking areas. I personally find your sweeping generalisation that all smokers are not civilised and non-thinking quite ridiculous, maybe you should engage brain into 1st gear before making such sweeping statements. You never known a civilised or thinking smoker in your life??...you aint been around much then have you!!...all in the best part of forum fun of course....

[SeanMoran]

Oh dear, i wondered how long it would take befoe one of the anti-smoking brigade appeared to abuse anyone who smokes. Remember, smoking is LEGAL, it's not a criminal offence unless you smoke in any of the designated non-smoking areas. I personally find your sweeping generalisation that all smokers are not civilised and non-thinking quite ridiculous, maybe you should engage brain into 1st gear before making such sweeping statements. You never known a civilised or thinking smoker in your life??...you aint been around much then have you!!...all in the best part of forum fun of course....

Where in the World was Virginia tobacco invented?

[Wolfie]

Before this topic degenerates into a Smokers vs Non-Smokers fight - i would like to ask you guys to stay on topic, keep your insults to yourselves (that goes for both sides of the camp!) and keep it civil.

Right, im off for a fag... brb