Smoking ban for Pubs on the way

[wowpow]

Authorities want smoking ban in pubs
Bangkok Post
APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL

Health authorities are pressing ahead with their call for the ban on smoking to be extended to night entertainment venues. A feasibility study on extending the smoking ban to cover pubs, bars and other entertainment venues is under way, said Disease Control Department deputy chief Narong Sahamethapat yesterday.
The amended ban, expected to take effect by August next year at the earliest, will also cover other public venuesincluding marketplaces, he said.

The study is being jointly conducted by the department and Mahidol University's Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre. ''Second-hand smoke has certainly taken its toll on employees of night entertainment places. We have to protect these people,'' Dr Narong said after a meeting with the national committee on tobacco control. The safety standard level for smoke and dust in the air is 15 parts per million (ppm). However, the average level of dust and smoke at nightspots around the country is as high as 450 ppm, according to a study covering more than 50 pubs and bars in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces.

Dr Narong said he realised the initiative would draw fierce resistance from nightspot operators and smokers, but he was ''prepared'' for that. Authorities had been gathering the opinions and views of nightspot workers for over two years before coming up with the idea that the smoking ban should be extended to pubs and bars too, he said.

A full report of the opinion survey is to be released next month, he said. The idea was floated shortly after Hong Kong's government imposed a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and offices. In March, 2004, Ireland became the first country in Europe to outlaw smoking in pubs, bars and restaurants. Similar bans are also in effect in several cities in the US, including New York.

Prakit Vathesatogkit, secretary-general of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, said the national committee on tobacco control would also ask the Excise Department to increase the cigarette excise tax and review the ceiling rate in an attempt to curb smoking, especially among teenagers and the poor. The ceiling is now fixed at 80% of the market price. The Excise Department currently collects cigarette tax at 79%

Bangkok Post General News

Made me day! Great idea. Those of you who smoke in bars should not have the right to make others sick.

[TrongpaiExpat]

expected to take effect by August next year at the earliest

I wonder if they mean August 2008?

Why not now, right now!

I was expecting more fire on this topic. It is a very polarizing issue, isn't it?

I don't think it is possible to enforce this policy.
Many clubs/bars do not have outdoor space, where can their customers smoke? at the sidewalk? in front of the door? Some of the bar/clubs stay open after hour (illegally), these clubs/bars don't want to have a big group of smokers outside to get policy's attention.

"The safety standard level for smoke and dust in the air is 15 parts per million (ppm). However, the average level of dust and smoke at nightspots around the country is as high as 450 ppm"

Well I don't want to go into a discussion about smoking, second-hand smoking and so on, I know from my no smoking friends that is it not funny to be in a room where almost everyone is smoking. But I would really like to see it compared to the daily pollution from cars in the streets of Bangkok and the pollution from factories in Thailand. I am sure the pollution in Bangkok kills a lot (more) people and are the course of health problems, example bronchitis and heart problems. I have been walking in the street during peak hour in 60 minutes, and my white shirt changed colour to grey and smelled awful, when I got back to my room. Sure I can decide not to walk in the streets of Bangkok, take a taxi instead and make more pollution.

A smoking ban cannot come sooon enough for me. I just got back from 3 weeks of fun in Pattaya. Most of the time I had a great time, partying with a friend, enjoying the company of several wonderful thai boys.

I had a couple dinners where a smoke came and sat next to us and promptly lit up to his own enjoyment, ignoring the affect his smoke was having on his neigbors. Same at Jomtien Beach where several smokers would sit next to our table, light their cigarettes and let the smoke blow where it may.

I understand there are other sources of pollution in Thailand (trucks, etc) on the street. However, I don't expect to sit next to a truck's exhaust pipe while I'm eating dinner, and not at the beach either.

Smoking should be confined to walking on the street sidewalk, and in one's home, with the window's closed. You can smoke all you want, I just don't want to have to smell it.

[TrongpaiExpat]

Smoking should be confined to walking on the street sidewalk,

Well.... A few days ago while walking on what's left of the sidewalk when the vendors set up, this guy with a lit cigarette brushed the lit end up against my arm. Not the first time either.

How about smokers only bars? would make a killing!

[fedssocr]

with so many bars and venues this would not be an easy policy to enforce. But I suppose if you make the penalties of getting caught severe enough that could make it work. There's always a huge outcry wherever one of these policies is put in place. It was just instituted here in Washington recently and most people seem happy about it. If it can be done in NYC I suppose it can be done pretty much anywhere.

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