Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Scaggs]

Hi all,
So basically, what is the state of smoking in Korea? Or more importantly to me, what is the state of non-smoking in Korea? I searched on the subject like a good forum user/noob and found posts, but a lot of them were some years old. Some posts from 2003 noted the prevailance of smoking, but also hinted that it had become an issue that had received some attention ... new laws that no one heeded and such.
Any chance of finding restaurants and PC cafes that are non-smoking? Any spoiled California non-smokers like myself have thoughts on non-smoking in Korea?

Thanks,
Michael

[Qinella]

There are some PC bangs that have separate rooms for smoking and non-smoking, but they are rare. You want to get your own PC as soon as possible because PC bangs are torturous anyway.

As for restaurants, I think you can smoke in most of them but it's not like everyone is sitting around chiefing stoges. Occasionally an ajoshi will smoke, that's about it..

[Scaggs]

Thanks for the reply!

[Wangja]

[Scaggs]

[Wangja]

[ella]

Non-smoking Californian here, too, Scaggs. I have reactive asthma so being around smokers is a big no-no. I'm guessing we'll going to have curtail some social activities in Korea as they typically involve places where there's smoke. How things will work beyond that, I don't know, but I'm curious, too.

[Novernae]

[ChopChaeJoe]

Just don't live in Seoul or Daegu or one of the multi-million people cities.. You won't have any problems avoiding smoke. Although you can pretty much smoke or drink anywhere in korea that you like. You can get 'faced on a bus if you want.

[Guri Guy]

I remember when I first got here that they said that 58% of Adult Korean males smoked. However they raised the price on cigarettes and that consequentally dropped to 52%.

Interesting article here, albeit a little old:

While only 8.6% of Japanese women smoked in 1986, that figure has risen to an estimated 13.4% in 1999. Among young women aged 20-29, the rise is remarkable: in 1999, 23.2% of women in this age group admitted to smoking, while that figure was only 10.5% in 1986. The same study found that, despite it being illegal for people under age 20 to smoke, 4.3% of teenage girls now smoke. In the same period, the percentage of men as a whole who smoke has decreased from 59.7% to 52.8%.

In China, only 6% of women currently smoke, while, in Vietnam, the figure is just 4%

In the 1990s, about 12% of women in WHO's Western Pacific Region as a whole smoked, compared to 47% of men. In Asia, smoking was traditionally considered to not be feminine and to be a sign of promiscuity. But, as conference delegates will hear this week, tobacco companies' targeted and often-ingenious marketing of their products to women via channels such as the media, fashion and entertainment, plus socio-cultural factors such as increased disposable income and the perception of cigarettes as both fashionable and a weight-control aid, could lead to an explosion of smoking rates among women. If history is anything to go by, the implications of these dynamics could be catastrophic: in countries such as Spain and Sweden, more young women aged 15 now smoke than young men of the same age. According to WHO figures, in 1994, 27% of Spanish 15 year-old girls smoked, while only 20% of boys the same age did. In Sweden, 19% of 15 year-old girls smoked, whereas only 15% of boys the same age did. Alarmingly, in at least one survey of Asian women, 40% of respondents already see smoking as a means of controlling body weight.

*Sigh*
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-1999/en/pr99-69.html

Old figures again but wow!

The prevalence of smoking in Korea is among the highest in the world, making Korea an important target market by multinational tobacco companies. In 1999, about 66.6% of men and 3.3% of women over the age of 20 were smokers in Korea.1 Considering that secondhand smokers were barely protected at worksites or public places by any sort of relevant regulation, the size of the population exposed to smoking related risks would be much greater than the estimates that are based on the reported smoking rate.
http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/12/1/37

[Guri Guy]

Here are some more up to date figures:

The highest smoking country among OECD members

South Korea has the largest smoking population of all OECD member countries estimated at 12 million out of 47 million in 2004. The smoking penetration in South Korea is fairly high as close to 55% of men are smokers. Women smokers are also not uncommon in these days. More and more female smokers smoke in public areas such as in pubs, restaurants, karaoke bars, and the like. However, it is rare to see women smoking on the street: to smoke in the open air is still very uncommon. Smoking used to be exclusive to men and as such smoking has connotations of freedom and liberation for female smokers.

[ChopChaeJoe]

Smoking relieves stress. Korea is a very stressed out country. Just thinking about one of my first grade students -- English lessons (on his fourth year), Chinese lessons, Tae Kwon Do, probably a musica instrument in there somewhere.

At that age it was all I could do to learn how to ride a bike and swim.

[Wangja]

Well, Michael, there you have it.

Of course, I put it far more succinctly in the beginning, but the advice remains the same.

Teach English in California.

[Wangja]

double post

[Real Reality]

Smoking and cancer risk in Korean men and women.
Jee SH, Samet JM, Ohrr H, Kim JH, Kim IS.
Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University
OBJECTIVE: In Korea, male smoking prevalence is among the world's highest, and mortality rates from smoking-caused cancers, particularly lung cancer, are escalating. This cohort study examined the effects of cigarette smoking on the risk of cancer mortality and incidence, and characterized the relationship of cancer risk with the amount and duration of cigarette smoking. METHOD: A nine-year prospective cohort study was carried out on 1,212,906 Koreans, 30-95 years of age. The study population includes participants in a national insurance program, who completed a questionnaire on smoking and other risk factors. The main outcome measures were death from cancer and cancer incidence, obtained through record linkage. At baseline, 472,970 men (57.0%) and 20,548 (5.4%) women were current cigarette smokers.
Cancer Causes Control. 2004 May; 15(4):341-8.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15141135&dopt=Abstract

Men's Smoking Rate Drops to 46%
The number of Korean men smoking decreased to 45.9 percent in September, down 3.3 percentage points from June, according to a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of 1,990 men and 2,043 women. The rate for women dropped to 28 percent. The ministry said yesterday that the survey shows that smoking is on a continual decline with the rate for men dropping to 49.2 percent last March, the first time it fell below 50 percent.

"Around 42,000 people die of smoking-related diseases a year in Korea, causing an annual socioeconomic loss of 10 trillion won ($10.4 billion) of," a ministry official said.
Korea Times (September 27, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092722164111990.htm