News - Smoking ban in ‘enclosed public places’

Government offices, public transport, shopping complexes, restaurants and hotels which could accommodate less than 30 people are among locations to be designated as no-smoking areas with the new tough anti-smoking legislation passed this week in Parliament coming into effect.

The penalty for smoking in restricted areas will be imposed not on the smokers but the owners, manager, trustee or occupier of such buildings.

The penalty for allowing smoking in a restricted area will include a maximum fine of Rs. 2, 000 or imprisonment of upto a year or both. Such penalties could be imposed under the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Bill which was unanimously passed by Parliament on Wednesday

The ban on smoking will be enforced in ‘enclosed public places” and a list of places where the smoking ban will be effective will be made public next week. Warning signs will be put up in these areas to educate the public of the new laws, a Health Ministry official said.

Hotels and restaurants which can accommodate more than thirty people will be entitled to have an “exclusive smoking area” with adequate ventilation while the prohibition will prevail in restaurants which can accommodate less than 30 people and hotels with less than 30 rooms.

Among the other locations where the ban will prevail will be hospitals, medical laboratories and medical channelling centres.

The restrictions will also apply to enclosed sports complexes, but whether the ban will be enforced for spectators in open terraces on sports stadiums is yet to be decided, a Health Ministry official said.

There will be no prohibition on the sale of liquor during sports events.

However sports sponsorships by tobacco and alcohol companies have been banned.

Public health inspectors, medical officers, excise officials and police have been empowered to enforce the new regulations.

The Health Ministry was told by the Supreme Court in its determination on the constitutionality of the Bill to define “enclosed public places” and that the prohibition should be limited to what would ordinarily come within the meaning of this definition.

The restriction will not apply to kiosk or similar places.

The Court said a reference to “kiosk or any other similar place” extends the operation of the definition to a wide and imprecise area which would be unreasonable.

Although the setting up of the 14 member Authority which will have wide-ranging powers in dealing with tobacco and alcohol policy will take some time, several other sections of the Bill will come into immediate effect, particularly those dealing with the sale of tobacco and alcohol to those under the age of 21, prohibition on vending machines and advertising of these products as well as the ban on smoking in “enclosed public areas.”

The Supreme Court determined that an alcohol product should mean a beverage containing a volume of one per centum or more of alcohol even though the Government Bill had defined alcohol product as a beverage containing a volume of 4.5 per cent or more of alcohol.

JHU MP Omalpe Sobitha Thera who was the intervenient petitioner in the case in his petition said that if the volume of 4.5 percent of alcohol was the cutoff point for definition of an alcohol product, this would in effect remove beer from the definition and permit the sale of beer to persons below the age of 21 and also permit beer advertisement.

The Court upheld the argument of the monk and overruled the objections raised that there were certain pharmaceutical products containing more than one per cent alcohol.

“There is no evidence any pharmaceutical product would come within this definition and the petitioners have in any event no interest in the pharmaceutical or ayurveda drug industry,” the Court said.