Smoke-Free

May 30, 2009 19:59 PM
Hotel Lobbies To Be Smoke-free Zones

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Bernama) -- Hotel lobbies and centralised air-conditioned offices are also to be declared smoke-free zones in a move by the Health Ministry to ban smoking in more areas.
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Smoke-free zones are currently enforced at, among other places, entertainment outlets, hospitals and clinics, public lifts, public vehicles, air-conditioned eateries, airports (except designated areas), government premises, halls, institutions of higher learning, kindergartens and nurseries, public transport terminals, schools, service counters at banks and financial institutions, shopping complexes, sports complexes, stadiums and petrol stations.

[Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai] said the Third Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 showed that the overall smoking prevalence in the country was 21.5 per cent, encompassing 2.73 million adults.
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He also said that last year, 4,500 people were summoned for smoking in smoke-free zones and fined between RM3,000 and RM5,000.
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-- BERNAMA

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=414817

Last week’s news, I know. I’m a little behind on a lot of things. Adding more places to the list of no-smoking areas is always a good thing; a neat way of telling those thick-headed smokers that they aren’t welcome. Enforcement is another matter, however. Only 4,500 people were summoned for smoking in smoke-free areas last year?! 4,500 out of God-knows how many people who light up at bus stations, food courts, shopping malls etc the chance that an offending smoker is summoned is very small indeed.

I suppose health officials are the ones issuing the summonses. The police don’t care, it’s not their job. They have better things to do like catching “real” criminals. Unfortunately, there aren’t many health officials around, and they have better things to do too. Besides, everybody knows in this country laws are only enforced when there’s an “operasi” going on.

What about summoning premise operators instead? RM500,000 for allowing people to smoke in your smoke-free premise. It should be a lot easier, logistically, than trying to catch individual smokers, passing the enforcement burden to the operators.

Another interesting angle over this whole smoking issue is that smoking has already been declared forbidden (haram) by fatwa councils at the federal level and at least five states, not to mention many eminent international scholars. If we respect and obey other rulings by these religious authorities then why ignore this one?