City braces for new smoking regulations

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Owners of enclosed buildings will soon be required to physically separate smoking places from non-smoking areas and must equip smoking rooms with exhaust fans, ash trays and warnings on the dangers of smoking to health, a gubernatorial regulation states.

Smoking is strongly linked to the development of conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and infertility.

Gubernatorial regulation No. 72, dated June 20, 2005, was issued as an implementing regulation of bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control, which will come into effect in February 2006.

Under the bylaw, owners of enclosed buildings and other public places that fail to comply with the regulation will be fined up to Rp 50 million (US$4,850) or jailed for up to six months.

The regulations are mostly addressed at those responsible for smoke-free zones -- owners of buildings, offices, schools, houses of worship and drivers of public transportation vehicles.

Also included on the list of public places are offices -- both government and private -- bus terminals, train stations, malls, airports, shopping centers, hotels and restaurants.

Public transportation vehicles, meanwhile, include trains, taxis, buses, busway, public minivans and kancil.

According to the head of the City's clean air campaign Yusiono Anwar Supalal, building owners, for example, may declare entire buildings as smoke-free places or they may designate special smoking places within their buildings.

The regulation also requires people responsible for public places to follow up on any complaints on violations of the smoke- free zones in their respective areas.

Heads of work places are required to give warnings to employees who violate no smoking zones.

Meanwhile, drivers of public transportation vehicles are also required to warn smoking passengers, but passengers may report smoking drivers to officials of the City Transportation Agency, who are required to take measures against such drivers.

Bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control was approved by the City Council in early February and will be put into effect in mid February next year.

The bylaw also emphasizes the importance of curbing vehicular emissions, which contribute to over 70 percent of Jakarta's air pollution.

The ruling includes requirements for all public vehicles to convert to using natural gas, as well as compulsory emission tests for all vehicles.

According to Article 40 of Bylaw No. 2/2005, civil servant investigators, in cooperation with City Police, will carry out investigations against those who violate smoke-free zones.

Executives of several building management companies said on Wednesday that they had not received any information about the new regulations, but said that they had no problem in banning smoking in public spaces in their building.

Maintenance manager of PT Sarinah on Jl. M. H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta Suhodo, for example, said that the most important thing was that the administration was consistent in enforcing the regulation.

"For us, there is no problem, but we hope that the enforcement would be carried out fairly in all buildings in the city. If we implement a smoking ban, while others do not, our mall will have no visitors or tenants," he said.