PHNOM
PENH, 30 May 2016: Cambodia will ramp up effort to end smoking in public places
by imposing fines on both individuals and businesses, effective this September.
Phnom
Penh Post reported that the Ministry of Health will run a campaign to
explain recent legislation that bans
smoking in public places.
Once the campaign ends the law will be strictly
enforced against smokers and establishments, mainly restaurants and
hotels. Fines will be imposed from 16
September.
Under the
sub-decree, approved in March, establishments will face a USD12.50 fine if they
fail to put up no smoking signs, or they provide ashtrays for customers.
Smokers will be fined USD5.
The
ministry issued a statement, last week, requiring managers and owners of
establishments to display signs in clear view to their customers.
The signs
must be written in Khmer, or English and must specify the fines.
The
decree is based on the law on tobacco control, which was passed by the National
Assembly in March. It bans the consumption of tobacco products at the workplace
and public areas, such as restaurants, hotels and on public transport. It
includes smoking and chewing tobacco.
According
to the latest WHO statistics, there are close to 2 million tobacco users in
Cambodia, of which 1.5 million smoke cigarettes, while the balance chew
tobacco. The latter are guilty of spitting the residue into ashtrays ,on street
pavements, on the floor of buses and
even out of the open windows of cars and
taxis.
WHO
technical officer, Dr Yel Daravuth, who helped draft the ban, said: “We don’t
want to punish people… but we need to protect non-smokers for second-hand smoke
and accompanying health risks.”
Last
year, the kingdom welcomed 4.77 million international tourists up 6.1% from
4.50 million visits in 2014.
The top
10 supply markets were Vietnam, China, Laos, South Korea, Thailand, the United
States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and France.
Wanwisa
Ngamsangchaikit
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