What Should Smokers do Starting from the 8^th of This Month…?
(Published December 06, 2012)

A complete ban on smoking will be imposed on all public places such as restaurants, PC cafes, and public bath facilities.

◇ Smoking will be banned in Gyeonggi Province in all public facilities such as restaurants, PC cafes, and public bathhouses starting December 8, and violators will be fined. ⓒ G-News Plus / Yu Je-hun
 
Starting on the 8^th of December, a complete ban of smoking will be implemented in all public places in Gyeonggi Province such as restaurants, PC cafes, and public bathhouses, and violators will be fined.

On December 5, Gyeonggi Province announced a complete ban of smoking in public buildings such as schools, children and youth facilities, medical centers, social welfare facilities, sharing vehicles, large buildings, restaurants, and highway rest areas from December 8, in accordance with the revised National Health Promotion Act.

Upon the implementation of this revised law, Gyeonggi Province will designate a total of 135,891 locations as non-smoking areas including 115,059 public facilities within its jurisdiction, bus stops in accordance with the ordinances of cities and counties, city parks, and 20,832 cleanup zones in front of schools.
 
Gyeonggi Province clarified that this revised law is stricter than the former law that classified a complete non-smoking zone and a partial non-smoking zone.

The former law designated that more than 1/2 of the area of any restaurants that are larger than 150㎡ be a non-smoking zone, but this revised law will impose a complete ban of smoking on the total area of the restaurants starting December 8.

The National Health Promotion Act plans to impose a complete ban of smoking on restaurants larger than 100㎡ starting in January 2014, and on all restaurants beginning January 2015 in order to protect restaurant patrons, owners, and workers from second-hand smoke.

In accordance with the revised law, public places must post a sign regarding information about non-smoking facilities and can install a smoking room for smokers. If installing a smoking room inside a building, the space should be a confined area and be fitted with a ventilator. If the smoking area is outside the building, the area should be clearly marked to prevent any harm caused by second-hand smoke.

If managers of public places do not designate smoking areas, they will be fined up to 5 million won, and anyone who smokes in a non-smoking area will be fined KRW 100,000. If they smoke in a non-smoking area specified by the ordinance of cities and counties, they will be fined KRW 20,000-100,000, accordingly.

To reduce smoking at bus stops, Gyeonggi Province produced a video titled, “Even if there is no Non-Smoking sign, public places with other people are non-smoking areas.”

Together with cities and counties, Gyeonggi Province plans to educate public facility users and people running businesses and promote a non-smoking campaign in public places.
 
ⓒ G-News Plus News | Chun Gyeong-nam chun0403@kg21.net
 
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