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Seoul to become a smoke-free city
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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:46 am    Post subject: Seoul to become a smoke-free city Reply with quote

Ok, apparently, they are making a huge effort to make Seoul a 'smoke-free' city. Good luck.

I recommend this article. It gave me many a laughs.

Quote:



Seoul targets secondhand smoke


As Seoul City plans to launch a two-day campaign that would ban smoking in public locations starting today, the urgency to block secondhand smoking is being highlighted once again.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it will go ahead with a campaign called "Zero secondhand smoking" around Jongno Sam-ga Station and Sadang Station from 4-8 p.m.

City officials will operate mobile non-smoking clinics for smokers and distribute brochures about the hazardous effects of secondhand or passive smoke.

This is part of Seoul City's effort to construct a smoke-free city and attract 12 million more tourists to the city by 2010.

So far, it has prohibited smoking at all bus stops and a number of parks in Seoul - including family-oriented Seoul Grand Park and Children's Grand Park - were named as smoke-free areas.

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs is also pushing measures to ban smoking at all public locations populated by teenagers, such as PC rooms and restaurants.


"We're currently working on devising a revised bill on health promotion by early next year, which would allow local governments to make their own decisions on designating smoke-free zones in their regions," said an official at the health promotion division at the ministry. "The bill will also seek to minimize smoking exposure among underage students."

In June, the average smoking rate for Koreans age 19 or older was 21.9 percent, according to a government report released in August. Smokers smoked an average of 17.1 cigarettes per day and said they began smoking at an average age of 21.3, it said.

More than two out of 10 adults are smokers, and exposure to secondhand smoke produces numerous side-effects like nausea, headache, dizziness, eye irritation, cough and sore throat, experts say.

It has been found that almost 30,000 Korean people die from diseases related to smoking every year.

"A smoker would see a seven-year cut in his or her life span compared to non-smokers and smoking will produce low-weight babies for mothers-to-be and sometimes cause sudden deaths for the babies," said

Baek Yoo-jin, professor at Hallym University in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

A recent study conducted in the United States found that 11 percent of women exposed to secondhand smoke had difficulties in pregnancy and one-third of those women experienced miscarriages.

Kim Gi-deok, a 28-year-old college student, said he always felt it was unjust for non-smokers like him to take in air mixed with smoke given off by the end of a burning cigarette.

"If smokers aren't able to do it themselves, I believe it is now time for the government to make them quit smoking in public places by force," he said.

However, smokers like Kim Sang-baek, 28, had a different point of view.

"It worries me that such campaigns like this may force the public to picture smokers in a negative light," Kim said. "Before beginning this campaign and to minimize the effects of passive smoking, I urge the government to review whether there are enough designated spots for smokers. Not only should the rights of passive smokers be protected but the rights of smokers should be considered as well."

By Cho Ji-hyun

([email protected])








http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/archives/result_contents.asp

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SHANE02



Joined: 04 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

hahahaha

shit, they can't even enforce traffic law.
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SHANE02



Joined: 04 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually I love the acceptance of the filthy habbit here.
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Xuanzang



Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When samgyopsal flies... Laughing
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diver



Joined: 16 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
As Seoul City plans to launch a two-day campaign that would ban smoking in public locations


Two whole days, huh? At least they seem serious about it Rolling Eyes
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Omkara



Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, it's a start.

I know that some Koreans loathe the second-hand-smoke-in-your-face culture. I watched some idiot on a bicycle, the other day, roll up right next to a grandmother, at the crosswalk, and, while we were waiting for the cross signal, he lit up. All his smoke was blowing in her little, now fiery, face. She pinched her nose and walked deliberately and angrily away from the idiot, making a silent statement about smoking and the fool's poor manners.

I felt a sense of gratification that it is not only me, a foreigner, who gets enraged at the oblivious smoking culture here.
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Yaya



Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many Korean husbands say they quit after marrying or don't smoke around their families at home (smoke in the veranda or balcony).

I have absolutely NO sympathy for smokers PERIOD!
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Bibbitybop



Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yaya wrote:


I have absolutely NO sympathy for smokers PERIOD!


I also have no sympathy for for people who drink alcohol, who drive motorcycles, who don't wear seat belts, who exercise during yellow dust warnings, who drink caffeine, who eat fast food, who listen to music too loudly in their headphones and for anyone else who makes personal decisions that could negatively affect their health. I hope the government regulates everything we do one day.
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Tiger Beer



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, right.

In a city where SMOKERS regularly sit and create smoke clouds in the NON-SMOKING section of every PC-Bang and no one ever says anything.
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

there is nothing like seeing a grown man squat while wearing a shiny suit and smoking a fag
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Xuanzang



Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yaya wrote:
Many Korean husbands say they quit after marrying or don't smoke around their families at home (smoke in the veranda or balcony).

I have absolutely NO sympathy for smokers PERIOD!


or in the car with the window down. As if that is going to save the little kid in the backseat.
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itaewonguy



Joined: 25 Mar 2003

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

HAAHHAHAHAHAAHHA

yeah right! the same guys who you need to convince to pass these laws are all smokers! GOODLUCK
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Omkara



Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bibbitybop wrote:
Yaya wrote:


I have absolutely NO sympathy for smokers PERIOD!


I also have no sympathy for for people who drink alcohol, who drive motorcycles, who don't wear seat belts, who exercise during yellow dust warnings, who drink caffeine, who eat fast food, who listen to music too loudly in their headphones and for anyone else who makes personal decisions that could negatively affect their health. I hope the government regulates everything we do one day.


Regulation helps maintain freedom. Too many smokers don't respect other's freedom to breath.

This kind of legislation is a move to regain the freedom to breath. Bravo!
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sojourner1



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't see Korea going smoke free since I've seen it a thousand times where it's tolerated for smokers to break the nonsmoking rules in restaurants and public areas. It's so tolerated in Korea to smoke anywhere that crusty men such as principals and other office staff smoke on school grounds, often at the front door, around children even though the doors may have a non-smoking listed on them. When I was teaching for hagwon, the bus drivers did that too and even smoked while driving as I went on field trips and then they'd hang out and smoke with the kids such as in a persimmon patch when we picked persimmons.

Even in the nice new gym I workout at, when I entered the locker room yesterday, someone was in the shower room smoking and when he walked out in full clothes and dry, a big cloud followed him. That would be good if they made it nonsmoking in bars and restaurants, but it's questionable if the law would be enforced. I love going to bars such as 3 Alley for a good beer, but it's a cigarette smoker hang out and makes me want a smoke again. Korea smells like a big cigarette with wafts of straight up funky ass and burnt plastics. It's smoky here.

In the states in many cities, it really is nonsmoking in bars and restaurants and they'll have you arrested for a $500 fine if you try it. In some cities, you're not suppose to even smoke anywhere in public nor while driving around. In said college town city of Columbia, Missouri where you can't smoke in public just 20 miles from where my sister lives, it is OK to smoke marijuana discreetly since it's decriminalized and most people get stoned though still technically illegal.
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Bibbitybop



Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Omkara wrote:
Bibbitybop wrote:
Yaya wrote:


I have absolutely NO sympathy for smokers PERIOD!


I also have no sympathy for for people who drink alcohol, who drive motorcycles, who don't wear seat belts, who exercise during yellow dust warnings, who drink caffeine, who eat fast food, who listen to music too loudly in their headphones and for anyone else who makes personal decisions that could negatively affect their health. I hope the government regulates everything we do one day.


Regulation helps maintain freedom. Too many smokers don't respect other's freedom to breath.

This kind of legislation is a move to regain the freedom to breath. Bravo!


If people are worried about clean air, Seoul is the wrong city to be in, with or without smokers.

The biggest problem is the Seoul and Korea have half-assed plans. They simply discuss outlawing public smoking in all public places. Near doors? Ok. In all public places? Ridiculous and impossible.

Here's a gem:
Quote:
This is part of Seoul City's effort to construct a smoke-free city and attract 12 million more tourists to the city by 2010.


Guess what, Seoul. Tourist don't decide to go to Japan or China because of smoking. Fix your police departments, your transportation websites and other outlets tourists use. Make them semi-foreigner friendly. Then you might get more tourists.

This demand for more tourists may be Korean tourists, though, not foreign tourists.
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