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Puffing on cigarettes in smoke-free areas still rampant, survey finds
“It proves that Jakarta has a problem with air pollution not only outdoors, which is significantly caused by pollutants from vehicles, but also indoors from cigarette smoke,” said Tigor.
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Smoking-free areas in 60 percent of shopping malls are not actually free of smoke despite strings of regulations on smoking bans that have been in place for more than a decade, a survey found.
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ir pollution in Jakarta is not only happening outdoors but also indoors, as tobacco smoking is still widely done within smoke-free area in shopping malls and markets in Jakarta.
A recent survey conducted in June by the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) found that designated smoke-free areas in 60 percent of shopping malls are not actually free of smoke despite strings of regulations for smoking bans that have been in place for more than a decade.
The smoking ban was stipulated in City Bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control and was enhanced in Gubernatorial Decree No. 75/2005 on non-smoking areas and Gubernatorial Decree No. 50/2012 on the supervision, monitoring and law enforcement of non-smoking areas.
Fakta’s division head of information and communications, Normansyah, said that the survey was conducted in 15 malls consisting of high-end ones including Taman Anggrek Mall in West Jakarta and Kelapa Gading Mall in North Jakarta, middle-range malls including City Plaza Jatinegara in East Jakarta and Block M Plaza in South Jakarta, as well as low-end malls including ITC Roxy Mas in Central Jakarta and Pusat Grosir Cililitan in East Jakarta.
“The malls were chosen randomly with consideration that they could represent all segments of society and spread in mayoralties in the capital city. The survey shows that violations of non-smoking areas occur primarily in middle to low-end malls,” said Normansyah on Monday.
The forum’s chairman Azas Tigor Nainggolan said that in supposedly non-smoking areas in malls, smokers, both visitors and tenants, still puff cigarettes in basements, parking lots and restaurants.
“It proves that Jakarta has a problem of air pollution not only outdoors, which is significantly caused by pollutants from vehicles, but also indoors from cigarette smoke,” said Tigor.
