No smoking at city offices

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With little fanfare, Governor Sutiyoso issued an antismoking decree last Tuesday, prohibiting smoking and the sale of cigarettes in city administration offices, Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo revealed on Thursday.

In an antismoking seminar at the City Hall, Fauzi cited Gubernatorial Decree No. 11/2004, which regulates smoke-free zones in the offices and special areas for smokers, which are fitted with exhaust fans.

"The decree also prohibits the promotion of cigarettes or cigarettes as freebies for administration officials and staff," he said.

World Health Organization consultant Widyastuti Soerojo added that the prohibition did not infringe on the rights of individuals.

"Smoking in public spaces is actually an infringement of the basic right of non-smokers to enjoy clean air," she said .

Another speaker in the seminar, intern Tjandra Yoga Aditama, who is director of privately owned Persahabatan Hospital, revealed that Indonesians smoked the fifth highest number of cigarettes after China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

"The death toll caused by smoking is far greater than that of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), traffic accidents, suicides, even homicides... Eight people die every minute from diseases related to smoking," he remarked.

Last year, Sutiyoso said he was planning a regulation to be enforced by the end of 2003 to prohibit smoking in public places, such as transit lounges, as well as private buildings.

Despite the existence of Government Regulation No. 81/1999 on health protection, which regulates no-smoking zones in public places, buildings and on public transportation, the policy is not applied by most government offices, aside from the health ministry and offices.