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okokok
Joined: 27 Aug 2006
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 Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:07 am Post subject: No Smoking Zones Expanded |
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| Quote: |
No Smoking Zones Expanded
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Smokers in Seoul will have fewer places to smoke, as the city is moving to designate parks and all other public places as nonsmoking areas.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday that it plans to assign outdoor public places including plazas, streets and schools, as nonsmoking areas and will issue related regulations soon.
The ordinance, aimed at protecting nonsmokers from unwanted cigarette smoke, will not be legally binding nor will fines be imposed on smokers who violate it.
It will be a recommendation that provides the basis for provincial governments to take various steps to curb smoking in public places.
``The measure is to prevent inhalation of second hand smoke and appreciate the health rights of nonsmokers,'' Cho Eun-hee, the assistant mayor of Women & Family Policy Affairs said. ``Since there are insufficient legal restrictions on smoking, citizens' participation and responses are the most important factors for the success of the policies,'' the official said.
According to a survey by the municipal government, 97 percent of participants said they are willing to refrain from smoking when there is a nonsmoking sign and it leads to not having a smoke in front of other people.
The city will designate major plazas such as Seoul Plaza, Gwanghwamun Square and Cheonggye Plaza and 16 major streets in Seoul as nonsmoking areas with no smoking sign-marked footpaths.
Restaurants in Seoul will be asked to set up separate smoking and nonsmoking areas. Under current law, only restaurants larger than 150 square meters are obligated to part the sections. The metropolitan government will give incentives to small eateries that separate smoking and nonsmoking areas.
Seoul will reduce the side effects of second hand smoke on teenagers by designating areas around elementary, middle and high schools as nonsmoking zones.
Registration for nonsmoking apartment complexes will be expanded as well, particularly for apartments built by Seoul Housing Corporation. Meanwhile, community areas such as hallways, staircases, playgrounds and parking lots are going to be smoke free.
Taxis must post no smoking signs and prohibit smoking, and the city will remove trash bins from bus stops to discourage smokers.
[email protected] |
This should work quite well.  |
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Yesterday
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Land of the Morning DongChim (Kancho)
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:25 am Post subject: Re: No Smoking Zones Expanded |
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| [email protected] wrote: |
No Smoking Zones Expanded
The ordinance, aimed at protecting nonsmokers from unwanted cigarette smoke, will not be legally binding nor will fines be imposed on smokers who violate it. |
so I will keep smoking as much as I want in Public..
| [email protected] wrote: |
| and the city will remove trash bins from bus stops to discourage smokers. |
so if waiting for a bus - I will have to throw the butt on the footpath...
Ciggs are 2,500won packet here - thats the problem - so cheap..
when I return to my homecountry - I will quit smoking - because packets of ciggs there are 19,000won |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:27 am Post subject: |
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| You can designate all you want but without stringent enforcement - nothing will come of it. Taking away garbage cans just means the street cleaners will pick up more buds as well as the sewage people. |
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okokok
Joined: 27 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:32 am Post subject: |
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| Ok, so I get it, Yesterday gets it, and Xuanzang gets it, but why the hell can't the government get it. This is the same way they deal with everything. |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| okokok wrote: |
| Ok, so I get it, Yesterday gets it, and Xuanzang gets it, but why the hell can't the government get it. This is the same way they deal with everything. |
The way the Korean world turns... |
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okokok
Joined: 27 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| Xuanzang wrote: |
| okokok wrote: |
| Ok, so I get it, Yesterday gets it, and Xuanzang gets it, but why the hell can't the government get it. This is the same way they deal with everything. |
The way the Korean world turns... |
Let me off........ I'm gonna puke. |
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Straphanger
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Chilgok, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:27 am Post subject: Re: No Smoking Zones Expanded |
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| okokok wrote: |
| Quote: |
| ...and the city will remove trash bins from bus stops to discourage smokers. |
This should work quite well. |
Where are there trash bins at bus stops? I'd pay for it out of my own pocket if they would put on there and empty it. Literally. For the two bus stops outside my complex (in Lake Wobegon, my home town), I would pay a million a year for some ajumma to set and replace trash bags once a week. I should drag my boss to a City Council meeting and address this in person.
I'm guessing they aren't there because nobody gives a shit except the bus drivers, who will just say something about forest fires and don't throw your butt on the ground, field strip it and put it in your pocket.
My assumption, and this has not been confirmed as a USFK regulation, that a serviceman did an extra obscene amount of PT when he threw a cigarette butt on the street. The smokers I've met field strip their butts and throw them in the trash for fear of someone seeing them toss it. |
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superacidjax
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Xuanzang wrote: |
| Taking away garbage cans just means the street cleaners will pick up more buds as well as the sewage people. |
Completely correct. In Paris, there are garbage cans/(bags) almost every fifty meters it seems.. amazingly, the streets are pretty darn litter-free. They have guys pressure-washing the sidewalks daily too..
Fewer garbage cans don't mean less trash.. that like saying fewer toilets will result in fewer people taking dumps.
When I was in Korea a few years back, I remember when they started taking away trash cans on the subway platforms in the name of being "green" or some such rot.. what happened? Stacks of trash on the platform or the single can in the station being overfilled.
Perhaps if Korea would stop individually wrapping every cookie, maybe then, the trash would reduce..
I realize that this has nothing to do with smoking, but I saw a parallel to actions Korea took years ago regarding trash.. (result: not effective, "feel-good" legislation, no real change.)
Raising prices on cigarettes doesn't always reduce smoking, although if taken to the absurd (i.e. the UK) It would lower the numbers. In Kansas City, where I am currently, cigarettes are about $4.50 a pack (having been raised from about $3.25 thanks to the new Barack-o-tax) however, at least among my friends the increase has done nothing but mean they spend less money on coffee and smoke the same amount.
The best way to reduce smoking is to turn it into a hassle to smoke, i.e. banning it in bars, restaurants etc. The tax doesn't make much difference, because people by cigarettes in bars all the time at nearly double their c-store prices.. But if you make people go outside to smoke, especially in a typical KC or Seoul winter with rain or snow everywhere -- you'll certainly smoke a lot less! I know I did. My reduction had nothing to do with the prices, it had everything to do with having to go freeze my tail off every time I wanted to light up. Smoking reductions happen when you reduce the number of legal places to comfortably smoke (i.e. airplanes, in bars, restaurants, taxis, etc.)
Reducing the places to smoke, reduces smoking. Taxes are just stupid, knee-jerk reactions. Alcohol taxes don't reduce alcoholics, they only make alcoholism more costly. If we tax everything that's harmful, perhaps we should start taxing lard or french fries. Maybe we should tax tanning booths and motorcycles too. Heck, maybe PC rooms should be taxed, if you play Warcraft (or whatever game is popular) for fifteen hours straight.. |
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3MB
Joined: 26 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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| I hope they keep expanding no smoking zones so as to eventually cover all public spaces. I have nicely (and not so nicely when needed) told several people to stop smoking in no smoking areas, and if these zones are expanded I will atleast be able to tell others to stop. Smoking is a disgusting habit, but even worse, it is poison smokers make others breathe when they smoke in public. And they dont even care about others, just like that moron yesterday in this thread. Ive seen people smoke around pregnant women, kids, their own kids. Ive seen idiots smoke while holding a baby. It makes me sick on several levels. |
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