A Group of Lawmakers Push for Ban on Street Smoking

Is it a good idea to stop people from smoking on the street?

57 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition party, including Grand National Party assemblyman Lee Guen-jin, submitted on Nov. 18 a revised public health promotion bill aimed to ban smoking on the street crowded with people.

In a countermove, the Association for Tobacco Consumer Protection, an organization led by a group of smoking advocates, earlier decided to collect signatures for a petition opposing the tough anti-smoking bill.

The revision requires local government heads to designate smoking-free zones in crowded areas or open space, and impose a penalty fee of more than 100,000 won on violators. It further requires tobacco companies to insert on the package of products a picture or a pictogram indicating the harm of smoking such as lung plagued with cancer cells.

Under the existing public health promotion law, owners of facilities are free to designate the entire or a part of their property as non-smoking area.

˝We decided to push for the revision since smoking on the crowded street could not only make people unpleasant but also do harm through second-hand smoking,˝ said lawmaker Lee.

˝Places to smoke are already shrinking rapidly despite the high rate of tobacco taxes, and it’s just way too much to stop people even from smoking on the street,˝ said Han Jong-soo, secretary general of the smoking advocates` organization. ˝For those lawmakers voting for the bill, they will face the day of reckoning in the next election.˝

˝It’s hard to find a precedent across the world to ban street smoking,˝ the Ministry of Health and Welfare was also skeptical about the passage of the bill.

Sang-Keun Song songmoon@donga.com