Smokers, businesses forced to adapt to smoking ban

From today, when landmark revisions to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act take effect, public establishments and smokers will be forced to change their ways or pay the price — a fine of up to NT$50,000 (US$1,515) for businesses and NT$10,000 for individuals.

Under the new revisions, smoking in indoor workplaces manned by three or more people and in most other public indoor spaces will generally be banned.

But hotels, shopping malls and restaurants are among the few places that will be allowed to maintain separate smoking rooms, though even many of these businesses are likely to prohibit smoking altogether in light of the strict requirements for setting up the smoking rooms.

The new regulations require a smoking room to measure between six square meters and 35 square meters and occupy no more than 20 percent of an establishment's total area. It must also have negative pressure of 0.816 mmH2O to prevent a smoke outflow and an independent ventilation system that provides at least 10 air changes per hour.

The high standards are similar to those that apply to quarantine wards for highly contagious patients, which mean expensive construction costs of at least NT$400,000 per unit.

Smoking rooms

So far, smoking spaces that conform to the new regulations remain rare, with only two five-star hotels in Taipei City and a shopping mall in Taipei County known to have built new smoking rooms.

“As for other establishments that are allowed to have a smoking space, they either have not made a move or are waiting to allow a smoke-free policy to come into being automatically, “ observed Yu Po-tsun, head of the Health Education Center at the Bureau of Health Promotion.

From the day the ban takes effect, most hotels will no longer provide ashtrays in their rooms or set aside a whole floor for smoking guests.

The ban will also apply to coffee houses, restaurants and bars operated by the hotels.

Hsu Lin-shu, marketing and public relations manager of The Landis Taipei Hotel, said the hotel is not planning to build a new smoking room in light of the high costs involved in the installation of the required facilities.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email